Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Time

8:37am - 10:14am

Details

The forecast had been for big seas, you know "Large and powerful surf conditions" but as it was a southerly, we thought we'd chance it. When we arrived at The Steps it was quite calm. It was probably calmer than it had been on Monday. We decided to dive The Leap and it was pretty calm there, too.

We jumped in at The Leap, Roney from the high platform and me from the low. We descended and swam at around 60° towards the sand line, arriving at the Amphitheatre. Visibility was at least 10 metres, there wasn't much surge and the water temperature was around 18.5°C. Most of the rocks were covered in snot algae. We turned left and headed towards The Steps.

I looked for pygmies on Ian's Pygmy Rock but found none. Roney found a small black painted angler on a rock behind Seahorse Rock. Just past Seahorse Rock behind the flat rocks with sponges I found 3 weedy seadragons, including a juvenile.

We continued on and I found 2 pygmy pipehorses on the side of Southern Cross Rock.

We swam through Seadragon Alley and I found 2 more weedy seadragons. At the end of Seadragon Alley I was looking for the robust ghostpipefish I'd seen last dive but instead found a Ardeadoris rubroannulata nudibranch, just like the one I found at Bare Island in 2015.

We kept going and stopped just after Big Rock. I found the pygmy pipehorse low down on a rock just past Big Rock that I'd found a few dives ago. A little further on at the sloping flat rock I found the red male pygmy pipehorse. I couldn't find the others.

I swam on to Miamira Rock, the basket star and the area where I'd seen the widebody pipefish. I found the male in the alga next to the kelp where I'd seen the female on Sunday. As I was photographing it, Roney called me back to show me another widebody pipefish he'd found closer to the sand line and back towards Big Rock. I took note of the location so I can find the area again.

I swam back to my widebody pipefish and then on to Diversity Rock and the red male pygmy pipehorse. I then swam back to my widebody pipefish and Roney met me there. It had moved to a different alga.

I was running low on air so we headed for the boulders and did our safety stop as we swam to Split Rock. After our safety stop we exited at The Steps. It was quite calm and the exit was easy.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

20.9 m

Average depth

14.9 m

Water temperature

18.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

12:20am

1.84m

Low

7:15am

0.40m

High

1:24pm

1.40m

Low

7:00pm

0.70m