Dive at The Monument, Kurnell, NSW on Monday 4 July 2016

Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 4 July 2016

Time

8:42am - 10:05am

Details

Mike and I got in just to the western side of the point so we'd be swimming with the outgoing tide for most of the dive. We descended and dropped over the eastern end of the north facing wall. We initially swam east until we hit the corner and then followed around to the right towards The Steps. The outgoing tidal current was quite strong and even though I was just drifting, I kept getting ahead of Mike and had to swim back against the current a few times.

I stopped on the slope where I have seen the small orange red-fingered angler and couldn't find it initially. I figured with the storm it probably wasn't there anyway. I did find a small Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch and a rock flathead. I swam back to find Mike. He was photographing a Phyllodesmium poindimiei nudibranch on one of the bommies on the corner. I swam back to the slope and while relocating the N. purpureolineata and rock flathead I spotted the angler. After taking a few photos I swam back to get Mike but he had gone.

I drifted with the current towards The Steps. I kept looking for seahorses along the way. When I got to Split Rock I looked more carefully but did not find any there. I continued on to the wall where up to 3 seahorses had been but I was not able to find any. I swam on to Block Rock which had been home to 4 seahorses but I still couldn't find any, even after a sweep of the whole area.

I turned and headed back towards The Monument battling the current. I got as far as the wall where I met up with Mike so I turned around and drifted with him to Block Rock. I did another sweep and then headed back to The Monument again. This time as I was swimming past the wall I spotted a male pot-bellied seahorse in the honeycomb sponge on one of the big rocks just off the wall. It was "Christopher" and he was only a few metres from where I'd last seen him and mustn't have been affected much by the storm. I drifted back to Mike to tell him and we swam back against the current.

After pointing out "Christopher" to Mike, I headed for the exit as I was dying for a pee. I swam along the wall through the sponge garden and through the rocks. I got out on the rocks just to the north of the little bay.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

82 minutes

Maximum depth

13.5 m

Average depth

10.8 m

Water temperature

16.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

2:07am

0.27m

High

8:03am

1.47m

Low

1:45pm

0.43m

High

8:16pm

2.01m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D7000

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6801.70

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.