Dive at The Monument, Kurnell, NSW on Monday 22 February 2016

Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 22 February 2016

Time

8:48am - 10:25am

Details

We jumped in from the little bay around the corner from the flagpoles. It was close to high tide so we were able to swim out. We then followed Noel to the bommies.

We swam past both bommies and spent some time hunting around the Carijoa colonies for the little seahorse that Noel had seen last Tuesday. We believe it is a Hippocampus hystrix. Even with all four of us looking we were not able to find it.

We headed back towards The Steps. On the slope where I found some seahorses a couple of years ago I spotted a small orange red-fingered angler. It was one of the smallest I've seen.

We continued on towards The Steps. Noel called out to me as he'd found a little yellow pot-bellied seahorse. He'd seen it on a previous dive and was pleased to have found it again. I will call her "Heather".

I wanted to look for the seahorses on the wall and further towards The Steps so I left Noel, Di and Mike and headed to the wall. I found "Fred" in his usual spot and then spotted "Bia" below him i a gap in the rocks.

I swam on towards The Steps and just before the rock with the other seahorses I spotted a weedy seadragon (PT2016021602) at the sand line. It was one of the ones I'd seen last time at The Monument.

I found "Duncan" low down on the main rock but could not see "Charlie". Last Tuesday she'd been on the same rock. I scouted around the are and finally found her on the back edge of the rock towards The Monument from the main rock. With a little more looking I found "Michael" in the sponges on the front side of the same rock.

I swam back towards The Monument and met Mike coming the other way along the wall. I pointed "Fred" and "Bia" out to him and then took him to the other seahorses and weedy seadragon. I pointed out all three seahorses and then had to leave as I was down to 50 bar.

I swam back to the wall and then up over the wall to 5 metres so I could start my safety stop as I swam to the exit. I overshot the little bay and got out on the rocks.

Buddy

Di & Noel Conlon, Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

13.5 m

Average depth

11.0 m

Water temperature

22.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

2:43am

0.44m

High

9:05am

1.74m

Low

3:34pm

0.34m

High

9:34pm

1.45m

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.