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

Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 6 March 2016

Time

11:00am - 12:11pm

Details

Despite the poor conditions on the first dive I decided to do a second but this time go right. I jumped in, descended to the sand line and turned right towards The Leap. The visibility was still poor, although slightly better, the surge was still ridiculous, and it was still around 17°C.

I swam along the sand line until the rock with the white honeycomb sponge and then headed up the reef to the seahorses. I found "Mikhail" on a sea tulip on a rock adjacent to the normal rock. "Di" was on the normal rock just across from "Mikhail". The surge made photography difficult.

I headed back to the sand line and followed it south east. I was looking for ghostpipefish. I was looking so intently and with the poor viz and outgoing current I swam right past Diversity Rock and was at the basket star before I realised. I kept on a little further hoping to find one of the ghostpipefish but didn't find any.

I swam up the reef to High Pygmy Rock. I found the male pygmy (IL2016021002) straight away but couldn't see the female. The surge made it difficult to stay in one place to look for them. While looking for the female I found another male (IL2016022101) much smaller than the first. Eventually I found the female (IL2015072601) low down on the rock.

I descended to the sand line and headed to Diversity Rock, passing the basket star on the way. At Diversity Rock I found "Daniel" in the sea tulips on the main rock. "Noel" was in the sponges on the rock behind Diversity Rock and "Arnold" was hanging on to a sponge low down on the side of the same rock. "Rosie" was on the large rock to the left.

I searched Diversity Rock for pygmy pipehorses and found three (IL2016030601, IL2016030602, IL2016022901) in total. They were all quite small.

I swam back to the other seahorses and both "Di" and "Mikhail" had moved up to near the top of the main rock. The surge was still pretty bad.

I then swam to the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

2 to 5 metres

Duration

70 minutes

Maximum depth

14.5 m

Average depth

11.1 m

Water temperature

17.2°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.

Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 11.8 m.

Mourning cuttlefish, Sepia plangon. 11.7 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Mikhail"). 10.3 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Di"). 10.6 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016021002). 11.8 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016022101). 11.7 m.

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2015072601). 12.2 m.

Basket star, Astrosierra amblyconus. 12.8 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Daniel"). 12.4 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Noel"). 11.8 m.

Female pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Rosie"). 11.8 m.

Male pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Arnold"). 12.2 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016030601). 12 m.

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016030602). 12.3 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016022901). 12.3 m.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri, (IL2016022901). 12.1 m.