Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 18 June 2017

Time

11:37am - 1:21pm

Details

A relatively large group (for me at least) of us were diving The Leap today (Dama and Roney, Donna and Ron, Mike, and me) as well as a group or two before us and one after. This is what happens when conditions are so good. Ron, Mike and I got in from the low platform (as we have big camera rigs) while the others jumped off the top platform. Once we all got together on the surface and were ready (well, I wasn't quite ready but I caught up), we descended and headed to the sand line. It was quite noisy diving with that many divers as I usually only hear the bubbles from one or two other divers. We hit the sand line just to the northwest of the amphitheatre. Visibility was at last 10 metres, water temperature around 18°C and only gentle surge. We headed towards The Steps.

I found the red-fingered anglerfish just before Ian's Pygmy Rock and showed Mike. Roney was there too, but the other three had already gone on ahead. After photographing the anglerfish, I went to Ian's Pygmy Rock to look for pygmy pipehorses and this time I found a small female. I wonder if she's been there before and I just didn't find her. By now the others were way ahead of me and I was on my own.

I followed the sand line past Seahorse Rock. I found the juvenile weedy seadragon just before Bent Stick Rock. On the rock below Bent Stick Rock I found two Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranchs and a Ceratosoma brevicaudatum nudibranch. On the sand just after the last nudibranch were three weedy seadragons. I had to be careful with one of them while I was photographing the C. brevicaudatum.

At Southern Cross Rock I looked for the white/yellow male pygmy pipehorse in the Carijoa but couldn't see him. The Carijoa polyps were all open which made it difficult to see. I did find a cryptic female.

I continued through Seadragon Alley and found a weedy seadragon towards the end. At the end of Seadragon Alley I looked in the clumps of red algae for the red widebody pipefish I saw on the last two dives. I found it and saw that it still has the isopod parasite. A little further on I found the Nembrotha purpureolineata in a red alga clump I have seen a couple of times before.

I continued on to Big Rock and came across Mike photographing the ornate ghostpipefish. He didn't see me and was just finishing as I arrived. He swam off and I took some photographs. I left and was on the other side of Big Rock looking in the clumps of red algae for pipefish when I heard bubbles. I swam back and saw Versnar, Dom and Daniela coming so I showed them the ghostpipefish before moving on myself.

I went to the sloping rock and found the pink male pygmy pipehorse. I looked for others but did not find any. Versnar swam up so I showed her the pygmy.

I continued along the sand line checking out the clumps of red algae until I got to Old Basket Star Rock. I headed in to Miamira Rock, the basket star and the pair of red widebody pipefish. As I approached the pipefish they were both feeding: shooting straight out of the alga into the water column before reversing into the alga again. While I was photographing them, one left the alga and swam to another one. Dom came down and started photographing the one that had moved.

I swam on to Diversity Rock and looked for the red male pygmy pipehorse but couldn't find it. I swam on to Little Big Rock and found the red-fingered angler on the adjacent rock. I then looked for pygmy pipehorses on Little Big Rock itself but only found the one.

I still had some air left so I headed back to Diversity Rock and then on to the pipefish. I found a Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch on the way. The pipefish were still in separate algae.

I headed straight to the boulders from the pipefish and started my safety stop as I headed to Split Rock. I arrived at Split Rock after 5 minutes and headed for the exit. The tide and the conditions made the exit easy.

Buddy

Mike Scotland, Dama & Roney Rodrigues, Donna Cassidy, Ron Walsh

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

103 minutes

Maximum depth

21.1 m

Average depth

14.6 m

Water temperature

18.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

2:06am

1.55m

Low

8:47am

0.50m

High

3:10pm

1.48m

Low

9:05pm

0.72m