Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 6 February 2017

Time

12:22pm - 2:11pm

Details

Conditions at Kurnell still looked great so it was time for another dive at The Leap.

Mike and I jumped in off the low platform while Roney and Dama got in from the main ledge. We swam out before descending. We headed to the sand line at around 30° and arrived just to the south-east of Bob-Lucy Rock. Visibility was 10 to 15 metres and it was just under 20°C. There was almost no surge but the tidal current was fairly strong despite the small difference in tide heights. We turned left and headed towards The Steps.

We headed along the sand line and just before Seahorse Rock I found one of Ian's pygmy pipehorses, the male. I looked for the female but could not find her.

We swam past Seahorse Rock and on to the flat rock where we'd seen the striped angler. Mike was photographing something on the other side of the rock and when we came up to him we saw it was a juvenile weedy seadragon. It was bigger than the one from a month ago so it is probably the same one that has grown. Near it was an adult male with eggs. Dama also found a tiny reaper cuttlefish.

We swam on to Southern Cross Rock and I found the small white female pygmy pipehorse Brett had shown me yesterday. I pointed it out to the others and then went on to photograph the delicate ghostpipefish which was still in the red algae on the next rock.

At the start of Seadragon Alley I spotted two eastern cleaner clingfish flitting around the kelp. Mike showed me a pair of mating common Sydney octopus in a tyre. Apparently they have been there for a couple of days.

We saw two weedy seadragons in the middle of Seadragon Alley, the second one was a male with eggs and then another weedy at the end of Seadragon Alley.

We swam on to Big Rock. I couldn't find the two pygmy pipehorses on the rock below Hand Rock but I did find two others on different but adjacent rocks a little closer to Big Rock. The male may have been one I've seen before.

Mike took me to show me the small white male pygmy pipehorse that Brett had shown me yesterday. Mike then left me. I looked around on the same rock for another but couldn't find one. I did find a small female on a nearby rock.

I went to Roney's pygmies but couldn't find either the male or the female. While I was looking I found another female. She was quite cryptic.

I swam on to Miamira Rock but I couldn't find any nudibranchs there. I did see the basket star. While I was there bumped into Aidan Slevin, Michael McFadyen and a third diver. We swam together until Little Big Rock.

Michael pointed out a pink female pygmy pipehorse on Little Big Rock and then I spotted a white male nearby. That made 9 pygmy pipehorses on the one dive. It's not a record but it is a good haul.

I was starting to run low on air so I headed to the boulders and started my safety stop as I swam to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop and exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

109 minutes

Maximum depth

21.0 m

Average depth

14.6 m

Water temperature

19.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

4:50am

1.61m

Low

11:27am

0.51m

High

5:26pm

1.29m

Low

11:19pm

0.49m