Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 28 May 2017

Time

8:37am - 9:47am

Details

I was asked by Della from Scubathlon to take Malcolm and Kyle on a dive to show them some of the treasures Sydney has to offer. Malcolm wanted to see some small things like pygmy pipehorses and Kyle was after weedy seadragons and giant cuttlefish. They'd dived with Tomas yesterday so the pressure was on to at least meet with Tomas' achievements. For the first dive we were getting in at The Steps and drifting to The Monument and then walking back along the shore. This would increase our chances of finding weedy seadragons for Kyle and still see good stuff at The Monument. Karen and Gary Smith joined us for the dive.

We jumped in at The Steps and while waiting on the surface we were blown away by how good the visibility was. We could easily see all the way down to the sand line and beyond. We descended and the visibility looked even better: It was at least 20 metres. The water temperature was just under 20°C and there wasn't much surge. For the conditions alone this was going to be a great dive.

We turned left and headed along the sand line. I was looking for interesting animals up from the sand line but keeping my eye out of weedy seadragons. We were more than half way to the sand line before I spotted a couple of weedy seadragons swimming together. At first I thought it was a male and female but after looking at my photos I think it was two males. I took my mandatory face and flank shots before moving out of the way so Kyle could get in there.

We continued on to the Deep Wall. I found the large orange red-fingered angler on top of the wall where it has been for the last few days. I took a few shots before pointing it out to Malcolm. It took him a short time to actually see it because the camouflage is so good.

A little further along the wall I managed to find the female ornate ghostpipefish. I hadn't seen her on my last dive at The Monument and it has been some time since I've seen the male. After we all taken photographs we moved on.

I looked for pygmy pipehorses on the low rock covered in Carijoa past the end of the wall. The Carijoa had snot algae all through it which made looking for pygmy pipehorses very difficult. I couldn't find the dark pink male but I did find a smaller cryptic one. I pointed it out to Malcolm.

We moved up the reef a short way to the flat rock with pygmies. I found the small red male and after taking a couple of shots pointed it out to Malcolm. While he was photographing the red one I looked for others on the rock. I found a tiny juvenile and one of the cryptic males. I couldn't find the female.

We headed further up the reef to the seahorses. I found the female on the side of the rock and pointed her out to Karen and Malcolm. I looked for the male but could not find him. I spotted the small orange red-fingered angler on a rock just below to female seahorse. This was where Roney told me it would be.

We swam down and along the reef to Four Pygmies Rock. The sponge where the large red male has been was covered in snot algae but the pygmy wasn't there. I looked on the rock below the sponge but couldn't see him. (Roney dived there after me and found him covered in snot algae.) I managed to find the female and pointed her out to Malcolm.

Kyle was running low on air so we headed up over the north-south wall for the east west wall. I thought we might find a giant cuttlefish there. Before we got to the wall I spotted a grey red-fingered angler and pointed it out.

I looked in some of the caves in the rock and spotted a medium sized giant cuttlefish. I called Kyle over and showed him. He got some photographs but it didn't come out very far from its cave.

We headed up the wall and then over the kelp to the rocks just to the north-west of the little bay where we got out and walked back along the shore to The Steps.

Buddy

Malcolm Nobbs, Kyle, Karen and Gary Smith

Seas

Calm

Visibility

5 to 20 metres

Duration

70 minutes

Maximum depth

13.0 m

Average depth

10.0 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

4:19am

0.22m

High

10:23am

1.52m

Low

4:03pm

0.48m

High

10:30pm

2.04m