Dive at The Steps, Kurnell, NSW on Saturday 13 February 2016

Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 13 February 2016

Time

12:09pm - 1:33pm

Details

We had planned to swim from The Steps to The Monument and back for our second dive. As we were heading down the steps a diver coming up said they had just seen a black robust ghostpipefish towards The Leap in around 14 metres of water. We immediately changed our plans.

We jumped in at The Steps and descended to the sand line. We turned right and headed towards The Leap. We stayed on the sand line until we reached the rock with the white honeycomb sponge and then headed up the reef to the rock with the two seahorses, "Di" and "Mikhail". They were both still there.

We headed back to the sand line and swam past Little Big Rock and on to Diversity Rock. At Diversity Rock we found "Daniel" in the sea tulips, "Arnold" was in the sponges on the rock behind Diversity Rock and "Rosie" was on the rock to the left of Diversity Rock. Both pygmy pipehorses were there: the whitish male (IL2016011002) and the drab female (IL2015123101). While we were swimming around I noticed an ornate ghostpipefish in front of Diversity Rock. This was the second ornate ghostpipefish I'd seen at Kurnell in a couple of weeks. I wondered if the diver we'd spoken to had made a mistake and this was the ghostpipefish she'd seen. Noel and Di swam up on their way from The Leap and I showed them the ornate ghostpipefish.

We headed along the sand line towards Big Rock. I stopped at the rock with the chimney sponge and found the juvenile pygmy pipehorse (IL2016021301). We then swam past the basket star. I started to head up the reef to the other pygmy pipehorses (having forgotten about the robust ghostpipefish) when Heather called out to me. She'd found the black robust ghostpipefish in around 14 metres of water.

We then headed up the reef to the pygmy pipehorses and found both the male (IL2016021001) and the female (IL2015072601). While Heather was taking photos of the pygmy pipehorses, I looked at the adjacent rock where I'd seen pygmies previously and found two juveniles (IL2016021302, IL2016021303).

We headed back to the robust ghostpipefsh, then past the basket star, and on to Diversity Rock. The ornate ghostpipefish was still there.

We swam back to the other seahorses, passing the Miamira magnifica nudibranchs along the way. They were separate from each other. We also saw a rock flathead under the kelp. "Di" and "Mikhail" were still at their rock.

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

Buddy

Heather Sutton

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 15 metres

Duration

82 minutes

Maximum depth

15.1 m

Average depth

12.1 m

Water temperature

16.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:37am

1.62m

Low

6:42am

0.38m

High

12:53pm

1.64m

Low

7:13pm

0.33m

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.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 10.7 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 11 m.

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

Nudibranchs, Miamira magnifica. 12.3 m.

Günther's butterflyfish, Chaetodon guentheri. 14 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 13.1 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Daniel"). 13.4 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, (""). 13.1 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Noel"). 13.2 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016011002). 13.1 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 13.9 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 13.6 m.

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015123101). 13.1 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 13.6 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 14 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 14.1 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 14 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 13.8 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 13.7 m.

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021301). 13.6 m.

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 13.7 m.

Robust ghostpipefish, Solenostomus cyanopterus. 15 m.

Robust ghostpipefish, Solenostomus cyanopterus. 14.9 m.

Robust ghostpipefish, Solenostomus cyanopterus. 14.8 m.

Robust ghostpipefish, Solenostomus cyanopterus. 14.9 m.

Robust ghostpipefish, Solenostomus cyanopterus. 14.7 m.

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 13 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021001). 13 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021001). 12.8 m.

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021302). 13.4 m.

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021303). 13.5 m.

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021302). 13.3 m.

Juvenile Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021303). 13.4 m.

Robust ghostpipefish, Solenostomus cyanopterus. 15 m.

Ornate ghostpipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus. 13.9 m.

Nudibranch, Miamira magnifica. 12.2 m.

Nudibranch, Miamira magnifica. 12.5 m.

Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 11.7 m.

Rock flathead, Thysanophrys cirronasus. 11.9 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 10.8 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 11 m.

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