Dive at The Steps, Kurnell, NSW on Sunday 6 March 2016

Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 6 March 2016

Time

8:53am - 10:01am

Details

It looked quite calm at The Steps when I arrived and was still that way when I made my way down to get in. I jumped in and descended to the sand line to discover poor visibility (3 metres at best), a lot of surge and cold water (around 17°C). I turned left and headed towards The Monument.

It was tough going heading into the outgoing tide. I swam along the sand line and encountered two weedy seadragons (PT2013121501 & PT2014012602), both missing their first head appendages.

I arrived at the rock with the seahorses and found "Deborah" first low down on the main rock. I then found "Michael" low down at the left end of the rock in a gap between the main rock and a smaller rock. I looked around the rock to the right and found "Charlie" in the sponges towards the back of the rock. I finally found "Duncan" on the top of the same rock.

I continued on towards The Monument and stopped at the wall to look for the other seahorses. I spent a long time looking all around the area but could not find any seahorses.

If conditions had been better I would have kept going to The Monument to look for the small red-fingered angler I'd found last week. Instead I turned and headed back to The Steps.

I stopped at the seahorses on the way back and saw another weedy seadragon (PT2014012601) at the sand line.

Between the seahorses and The Steps I saw one of the earlier weedies again. I started my safety stop as I approached the exit and when I finished it I got out at The Steps.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

2 to 5 metres

Duration

67 minutes

Maximum depth

12.3 m

Average depth

10.3 m

Water temperature

16.9°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

12:26am

0.55m

High

6:55am

1.68m

Low

1:33pm

0.38m

High

7:32pm

1.40m

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.