Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 21 October 2016

Time

11:28am - 1:11pm

Details

It was a little rough at The Steps with a moderate northeasterly swell. I wanted to head to The Monument to see if I could find the seahorse that Bia had found last Sunday. I also wanted to visit my pygmy pipehorses and the Miamara magnifica nudibranchs the other way. I figured with my pony I could do both if I exited at The Monument. That plan also meant not risking an exit at The Steps if the swell increased.

I jumped in at The Steps, descended to the sand line and turned right towards The Leap. Visibility was over 5 metres (close to 10) and there was a gentle surge. I hadn't gone very far along the sand line when I found a weedy seadragon.

I continued along the sand line past Diversity Rock where I slowed to look for the male weedy seadragon that had been in the kelp for the last few weeks. The incoming tidal current was quite strong and swimming against it was hard work.

I made it to Hand Rock and found the female pygmy pipehorse immediately. It took me a couple of minutes to find the male. With that part of the mission accomplished I turned and headed back along the sand line towards The Steps.

I drifted along the sand line to the rock where the basket star used to be and then swam up the reef to the rock with the Miamara magnifica nudibranchs. They were both there. I then checked out the basket star at its new location. I made a quick pass over Diversity Rock and surrounds hoping a seahorse or more had shown up but there were none. I headed back to the sand line and continued drifting towards The Steps.

I passed The Steps and continued along the sand line towards The Monument. I found two more weedy seadragons along the way. I got to the area that John had found the two small painted anglers earlier in the year and had a half hearted look for more. As I was heading back to the sand line I spotted a robust ghostpipefish drifting around on the sand. This was a huge surprise for October and goes with Daniela's find of a juvenile ornate ghostpipefish a couple of weeks ago.

I drifted on to Block Rock and checked it over for seahorses. Just past Block Rock I spotted a second robust ghostpipefish on the sand. This one was smaller than the first and had a nice red tinge.

I swam on to the wall and had a good look for the seahorse that Bia had seen last week. After a fairly extensive search I failed to find any seahorses. I continued along the wall and then along the reef to Split Rock. I carefully checked out Split Rock for seahorses but found none.

I went a little farther past Split Rock and then headed shallower towards the exit. For some reason I looked in a Capnella colony and found a spider crab. The surge made photography difficult. I then headed for the exit. I surfaced to the right of the little bay around the corner from the flagpoles and then headed into that bay where I exited without too much trouble.

Seas

Moderate

Visibility

5-10 metres

Duration

100 minutes

Maximum depth

15.8 m

Average depth

11.6 m

Water temperature

15.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

1:00am

1.38m

Low

6:46am

0.49m

High

1:12pm

1.75m

Low

8:00pm

0.34m