Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Time

8:32am - 9:58am

Details

The water looked quite calm at The Monument although the surface water looked a little brown. It was an outgoing tide so it wasn't going to be the best conditions but we hoped for something good.

We got in at the little bay facing Henry Head around the corner from the flagpoles. We waded out and then surface swam out and down a little way towards The Steps. The visibility wasn't good enough for us to see the bottom but we hoped we'd be over Block Rock when we descended. We were pretty close, after descending we were just to the south east of Block Rock. Visibility was 3 to 5 metres and the outgoing tidal current was quite strong. Water temperature was just under 19°C. We started swimming back towards The Monument into the ongoing current. It was tough going but we had plenty of time to look for things.

When we arrived at the wall I looked for the orange red-fingered angler we'd seen last time and found it straight away. It was difficult to photograph due to the strong current but I managed it.

We continued along the wall. We weren't able to look for the robust ghostpipefish due to a large wobbegong sitting in the hole.

At the end of the wall I checked out the low rock with Carijoa colonies and found 3 pygmy pipehorses, including the dark pink male. By now we had surge to contend with in addition to the current, and there was also snot algae over everything.

I swam up to the flat rock just up from the Carijoa rock and Mike was photographing a cryptic female pygmy. I looked around on the rock and eventually found the red male and a cryptic male.

I headed up to the rock with the seahorses and found the female on the side. After a bit of hunting around I found the male on top of the rock. I headed up further to see the cowrie but couldn't find the right Capnella colonies and headed back to the seahorses. Mike pointed out a small orange red-fingered angler hiding behind some weed. While I was photographing it, Roney called my to show me a girdled pipefish he'd found.

I headed along the reef past Split Rock to Four Pygmies Rock. I found the pink male in the sponge, although the sponge was covered in snot algae. The surge and algae made photography almost impossible. After much searching I found a female low down on the rock.

Roney showed me a small grey red-fingered angler slightly higher from Four Pygmies Rock. I was running low on air so I said my goodbyes and headed for shallower water. I did my safety stop before exiting on the rocks to the north of the little bay.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues, Mike Scotland

Seas

Surgy

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

86 minutes

Maximum depth

12.5 m

Average depth

10.1 m

Water temperature

18.7°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

12:38am

0.42m

High

6:38am

1.64m

Low

12:43pm

0.34m

High

7:09pm

1.92m