Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 12 February 2016

Time

9:20am - 10:50am

Details

It was calm at The Leap so we jumped in from the low platform. We descended and swam at around 30° to the sand line. We arrived near the rock where I last saw "Bob" and "Lucy" the pot-bellied seahorses. Visibility was 10 to 15 metres and there was almost no surge.

We swam along the sand line towards The Steps. Before we reached Seahorse Rock I discovered a Miamira magnifica nudibranch. I'd seen them near The Steps but not this close to The Leap. What I didn't realise until I looked at the photos the next morning was this nudibranch had a commensal emperor shrimp, Periclimenes imperator.

I found a weedy seadragon (PT2015062401) just after Seahorse Rock. We didn't see any more weedy seadragons until we hit Seadragon Alley.

In Seadragon Alley we saw 9 weedy seadragons: PT2015011102, a juvenile that we'd seen before (PT2016011701), the female with the cut first appendage (PT2013122201), a male with lost of eggs that had started to hatch (PT2014030803), the new one I'd seen on Wednesday (PT2016021001), one of the juveniles from last year (PT2015091101), another newish one (PT2015122201), another male with eggs coming to an end (PT2016012602), and another juvenile from last year (PT2015051001).

After Seadragon Alley we saw the female weedy with the deformed body (PT2014030901).

After Big Rock, we headed up the reef to the rock with the pygmies I'd found again on Wednesday. Both the female (IL2015072601) and the male (IL2016021001) were there.

We headed back to the sand line, past the basket star and on to Diversity Rock. "Daniel" was in the sea tulips, "Arnold" and "Noel" were in the sponges behind Diversity Rock. "Rosie" was on the rock to the left of Diversity Rock. The female (IL2015123101) and male (IL2016011002) pygmy pipehorses were in the Carijoa colonies.

We swam on towards the other seahorses and again saw the two Miamira magnifica together along the way. Both "Di" and "Mikhail" were on their usual rock.

We headed to the boulders, did our safety stops and exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Mike Scotland, Eddie Ivers

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10-15 metres

Duration

90 minutes

Maximum depth

21.6 m

Average depth

14.2 m

Water temperature

20.1°C

                                       

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.

Low

5:45am

0.32m

High

12:01pm

1.78m

Low

6:25pm

0.25m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D7000

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6801.70

Lens port

Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41

Strobe

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161

Photographs


Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.


Juvenile giant cuttlefish, Sepia apama. 21.3 m.
 

Nudibranch, Miamira magnifica, with commensal emperor shrimp, Zenopontonia rex. 21.4 m.
 

Juvenile giant cuttlefish, Sepia apama. 20.5 m.
 

Juvenile giant cuttlefish, Sepia apama. 20.8 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015062401). 19.9 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015062401). 19.8 m.
 

Juvenile reaper cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 19.9 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015011102). 18 m.
 

Juvenile weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 16.6 m.
 

Juvenile weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 16.8 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2013122201). 17.7 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2013122201). 17.9 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030803). 18.1 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030803). 18.4 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2016021001). 18.4 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2016021001). 18.3 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015091101). 17.6 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015122201). 17.3 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2015122201). 17.3 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2016012602). 17.2 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030901). 15.2 m.
 

Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, (PT2014030901). 15.3 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 12.8 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021001). 12.6 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 12.8 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021001). 12.6 m.
 

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 13.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Arnold"). 12.7 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Noel"). 12.7 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 13.4 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Daniel"). 13.3 m.
 

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011002). 12.8 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015123101). 13 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 13.6 m.
 

Nudibranchs, Miamira magnifica. 12 m.
 

Nudibranchs, Miamira magnifica. 12.1 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 11 m.
 

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 11.2 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 11.1 m.
 

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10.9 m.