Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 28 May 2017

Time

10:54am - 12:05pm

Details

For our second dive we went right from The Steps for more pygmy pipehorses, possible weedy seadragons and perhaps giant cuttlefish.

It was 30 minutes after high tide when we got in but the water was still crystal clear. We descended to the sand line and the visibility was still 20 metres. The water was closer to 19°C and there was a small amount of surge. We turned left and headed along the sand line.

I found a couple of reaper cuttlefish along the way as well as a Nembrotha purpureolineata. I then spotted a weedy seadragon. I check Little Big Rock for pygmies but found none.

At Diversity Rock I found the male red pygmy pipehorse in its usual spot. I pointed it out to Malcolm and then looked for others but found none.

As I was heading towards Miamira Rock and the basket star I spotted two red pipefish in a red alga. When I looked closely I realised they were widebody pipefish. Graham Short had asked me to find some. The female disappeared but the male stayed in the alga and I took some photos before showing Malcolm and Kyle. I then went on a hunt for the female and found her a short distance away. After getting some photos of both pipefish we moved on.

We went fairly quickly towards Big Rock as I wanted to find the pygmy pipehorses on the flat sloping rock. I found the red male straight away and showed Malcolm. I then looked for others and ended up finding two others. While Malcolm was photographing them I had a quick look towards Big Rock for others but found none.

We turned and headed back towards The Steps. The visibility had dropped to around 5 metres. I swam back via the widebody pipefish. I could only find the male. The female was gone.

We headed straight for the boulders as I thought we might get lucky and see a giant cuttlefish in the boulders. On the way, we saw an eagle ray. As we swam along the boulders we came across two large giant cuttlefish chasing each other. We stopped to watch them.

We continued on to Split Rock and then exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Malcolm Nobbs, Kyle, Karen and Gary Smith

Seas

Calm but some surge

Visibility

5 to 20 metres

Duration

71 minutes

Maximum depth

14.5 m

Average depth

11.4 m

Water temperature

18.8°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