Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 26 December 2016

Time

1:05pm - 2:37pm

Details

I was going to do a second dive with Kim but due to lack of parking at Bare Island she couldn't join me and I went solo again. It was still calm but a lot closer to low tide so I didn't have high expectations for the visibility. I got in at the usual spot to the west of the ramp and surface swam for a while before descending to the sand sand. Surprisingly the visibility was still around 5 metres.

I swam past the outboard motor, over the ledge and along to the top of the slope. I headed down the slope and stopped at the pygmy pipehorses I'd seen on the earlier dive. The female was still visiting the male until he pecked her and she'd drift off again.

I continued down the slope to the seahorses. The visibility was still around 8 metres. The male was in the same sponge but the female was not on the sponge I'd seen her on earlier. I couldn't see her nearby and made a few sweeps looking for her. There were a few predators around and I feared for her. I was also being followed by the very friendly blue groper and wondered if he'd eat a seahorse.

While looking for the female seahorse I spotted a red indianfish hiding under some kelp. It is amazing how many red indianfish there are at Bare Island. There are even more at Henry Head but I have only see two at Kurnell in hundreds of dives.

I finally found the female seahorse. She was only about a metre from where she'd been on the previous dive but was holding on to a tiny sponge so it was basically just her in the algae.

I wanted to find more pygmy pipehorses so I spent the rest of the dive looking for them as I slowly made my way up the slope. Despite my intensive search I found no more until I reached the pair above Pygmy Rock. I continued looking all the way up the slope and then all the way to the outboard motor. I found none.

I started my safety stop at the outboard motor and swam slowly to the exit. I got out where I got in.

Seas

Calm

Visibility

3 to 8 metres

Duration

91 minutes

Maximum depth

13.8 m

Average depth

9.7 m

Water temperature

17.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

Low

12:42am

0.53m

High

7:19am

1.59m

Low

1:54pm

0.52m

High

7:39pm

1.28m