Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 9 December 2016

Time

12:09pm - 1:40pm

Details

My goal for this dive was to find the male and female great seahorses, H. kelloggi. They'd be spotted a few time in previous days and Kim had told me where they were yesterday. I'd have a good starting point.

The forecast for today had changed so many times I wasn't sure what to expect when I arrived. It was meant to be a moderate southerly but there was a very strong westerly wind that was making it very choppy. The entry/exit to the west of the ramp looked fine and the water looked clear straight out from there.

I got in just the the west of the ramp and surface swam out over the sand. I could just make out the kelp so the visibility was around 3 metres. The surface was quite choppy. I descended to the sand and swam to the outboard motor and up over the ledge. I swam along in front of the boulders to the top of the slope. The visibility was still around 3 metres and the water temperature was around 20°. There was almost no surge.

I swam down the slope down to Juvy Rock. The female great seahorse had been seen near the base of Juvy Rock. I looked in the orange sponges below Juvy Rock and then noticed she was in the orange sponge on top of the rock. My mission was 50% complete and I'd barely started. After taking some photographs of her I moved on.

I headed further down the slope to the orange sponges where I saw the female on 14 November. The male had been seen here last weekend and had moved west by yesterday. I checked all around the area on all the sponges but could not find him. I continued around the corner and checked the other spots he'd been spotted previously. I went looking for the pygmy pipehorse in the Carijoa next to the honeycomb sponge. There was some current and colder water here. It dropped to around 19°. I somehow got turned around and swam off in the wrong direction. After checking my compass I worked out my mistake and got back on course.

I found the rock and spotted a female pygmy pipehorse. I'd only seen a male here previously. I searched a bit more and found the male. While I was taking photographs a very large stingray swam very closely past me with a large kingfish swimming above it. I also had a large blue groper watching me and there was a medium crested horn shark on the other side of the rock.

I swam back to the corner and checked out the squat lobsters in the orange sponge on my way past the caves. I had another hunt for the male great seahorse and just as I was about to give up I spotted him on a red chimney sponge between the sponges he'd been on last weekend and Juvy Rock. Perhaps he'll find the female.

I stopped at Juvy Rock and the female great seahorse had moved to the green hand sponge. The surge had picked up by now and the sponge was moving quite a lot. I hope she was holding on tightly.

I headed up the slope briefly looking for pygmy pipehorses on the way up. The surge was getting quite strong and the visibility dropped to around a metre. As I was swimming past the boulders I started my safety stop and hung to the boulders as I swam to the exit. I got out where I got in. It was a lot rougher now. The exit wasn't difficult just annoying.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

1-3 metres

Duration

91 minutes

Maximum depth

14.6 m

Average depth

11.4 m

Water temperature

19.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

4:43am

1.45m

Low

10:42am

0.60m

High

4:48pm

1.48m

Low

11:14pm

0.36m