Dive at The Leap, Kurnell, NSW on Monday 14 March 2016

Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 14 March 2016

Time

11:04am - 12:44pm

Details

Finally Botany Bay looked calm with just a gentle swell hitting The Leap. We jumped in from the low platform, descended and swam at around 30° to the sand line, arriving near the rock I last saw the seahorses "Bob" and "Lucy". We turned towards The Steps.

I looked for the nudibranchs before Seahorse Rock but could not find either of them. Just after Seahorse Rock I spotted a weedy seadragon (PT2015081601).

We continued on towards The Steps. I check the gap between the large rocks for the weedy seadragon I often see there but instead found it (PT2015062401) a little farther on in the loose kelp. I also spotted the bent stick pipefish on the rock we often see it.

Just past Southern Cross Rock I saw another weedy seadragon (PT2016021001) and then another (PT2014030803) before getting to Seadragon Alley. In Seadragon Alley we came to the ball of striped catfish. Mike took some photos of me in the ball. We continued on and saw the deformed female weedy (PT2014030901) at the end of Seadragon Alley.

We swam slowly along the area between Seadragon Alley and Big Rock looking for the robust ghostpipefish Mike had seen the other day. We didn't find it but did see another weedy seadragon.

Between Big Rock and the basket star I headed up the reef to High Pygmy Rock. Mike was set up for wide angle and couldn't shoot pygmy pipehorses. I found 3 of the 4 pygmies on the rock, the female (IL2015072601) that has been around for a while and two males (IL2016021002 & IL2016022102).

I descended to the sand line and swam past the basket star to Diversity Rock. On the way I spotted a small crowned puffer. I caught up with Mike at Diversity Rock as he was photographing "Rosie" on the rock to the left of Diversity Rock. He was low on air so left me. The three males, "Daniel", "Noel" and "Arnold" were in the sponges behind Diversity Rock. I found the whitish male pygmy pipehorse and drab female in the Carijoa midway down the rock.

I swam along the sand line towards the other seahorses hoping to find ghostpipefish but found none. At the other seahorses both "Di" and "Mikhail" were at the high end of their rock.

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

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Some surge

Visibility

3 to 8 metres

Duration

100 minutes

Maximum depth

21.2 m

Average depth

14.1 m

Water temperature

18.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

1:06am

1.72m

Low

7:36am

0.40m

High

1:39pm

1.42m

Low

7:38pm

0.50m

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.