Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 28 May 2016

Time

11:11am - 12:48pm

Details

The forecast was for a 2.5m southerly swell but both The Leap and The Steps were relatively calm and both safe for entry and exit respectively. It was 2 hours to high tide and the low platform was under water so I slid down the wall. Visibility in the shallows looked OK. I descended and headed at around 30° to the sand line. I arrived near the rock I last saw "Bob" and "Lucy" (I really need to name that rock). Visibility was 3 to 5 metres. I turned left and headed towards The Steps.

I found "Cam", the orange painted angler, on the rock before the encrusted fibreglass. I almost missed Seahorse Rock as there was so much loose kelp floating around. I tried to swim back but the current was too strong. I found "Ronnie", the tiny orange painted angler, on the red sponge on the rock where Donna originally pointed it out. I then spotted a weedy seadragon on the sand below the rock. I looked for the bent stick pipefish but the current and surge made it too difficult.

I continued and and came across two weedy seadragons, a male and a female swimming together just before Seadragon Alley. It's not long until the breeding season starts.

At the start of Seadragon Alley I had a look for "Steve", the orange painted angler, but couldn't find it. I continued on through Seadragon Alley and spotted another weedy seadragon towards the end.

As I approached Big Rock I looked under the rock where the upside-down pipefish lives and spotted it briefly before it hid at the back of the cave. I then went on to the ornate ghostpipefish but the visibility dropped to around 2 metres making photographing the ornate ghostpipefish very difficult. I looked for "Sooty", the black painted angler, but I couldn't find it.

I swam past Big Rock and along the sand line before heading up the reef to High Pygmy Rock. I looked for pygmies but found none. I headed back down to the sand line, past the basket star and on to Diversity Rock. "Daniel" and "Noel" were in the sponges on the rock behind Diversity Rock. "Rosie" was on the rock to the left of that rock. I couldn't find "Arnold". I found the pygmy pipehorse in the Carijoa near the white honeycomb sponge.

I swam on to the other seahorses and saw a Nembrotha purpureolineata along the way. I was only able to find "Mikhail" on his rock. I searched for "Di" but couldn't find her. I then headed for the boulders, did my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Seas

Surge at times

Visibility

3 to 8 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

21.4 m

Average depth

14.5 m

Water temperature

19.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

12:10am

1.69m

Low

7:03am

0.50m

High

1:11pm

1.35m

Low

6:44pm

0.73m