Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Friday 4 March 2016

Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 4 March 2016

Time

12:37pm - 2:19pm

Details

We jumped in from the low platform, 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. The visibility was only around 5 metres, if that, there was a lot of surge and it was cold: under 17°C.

We swam towards The Steps. I had a look for the Miamira magnifica nudibranch but could not find it. At Seahorse Rock we saw a weedy seadragon (PT2015081601) and a big school of striped catfish.

At the start of Seadragon Alley we saw the female weedy with the cut first appendage (PT2013122201), then one of the newer weedies (PT2016021001) and then the male with the flatish top on his second appendage (PT2014030803). He had no eggs. Next we saw the juvenile weedy (PT2016011701) that has been around of late, then one of the juveniles from last year (PT2015091101) and another of the newer ones (PT2015122201). I looked for the robust ghostpipefish but could not see it.At the end of Seadragon Alley, we saw another juvenile from last year (PT2015051001). After Seadragon Alley we saw the female with the deformed body (PT2014030901).

We continued on towards The Steps. Near Big Rock we saw another weedy, a male without eggs (PT2014091301). I headed up to High Pygmy Rock and found the male (IL2016021002) and female (IL2015072601) pygmies. I came back down to the sand line and spotted another weedy (PT2016021501) just before the basket star.

I swam on to Diversity Rock and caught up with Mike. "Daniel" was in the sea tulips on Diversity Rock and "Arnold" and "Noel" were on the rock behind Diversity Rock. "Rosie" was on the rock to the rock to the left of Diversity Rock. I was not able to find any pygmy pipehorses on Diversity Rock. Mike left me and I continued on to the other seahorses.

At the other seahorses, I found "Di" on a sponge and "Mikhail" was in the sea tulips. I then headed for the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

101 minutes

Maximum depth

21.3 m

Average depth

14.4 m

Water temperature

16.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

5:02am

1.48m

Low

11:49am

0.59m

High

5:45pm

1.22m

Low

11:28pm

0.63m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D300

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6812.3

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.