Dive Details
Location
Date
Sunday 30 July 2017
Time
8:37am - 10:13am
Details
Conditions had only been ordinary on Friday when I dived and reports from yesterday (I had to work) were much the same. Nevertheless I was keen to dive The Monument with Dama. It had to be an early dive as I had a birthday lunch to attend (with pork!). The good thing was it was very calm and hopefully that would translate to better visibility.
We jumped in at the platform about a third of the way from The Monument to The Steps, surface swam out to the edge of the platform and descended. We were really surprised how good the visibility was. It was at least 5 metres and closer to 10 metres. There was no surge and the water temperature was just under 17°C. We turned left and headed towards The Monument.
We followed the sand line to Block Rock. As we swam past Block Rock I noticed a weedy seadragon out on the sand. It was a male with eggs. Just past Block Rock I looked for my little orange angler and found it on the sand just below the rock its been on for the last 2 months.
We continued on to the wall. I was on the lookout for the large orange red-fingered angler we've been seeing of late. I wasn't able to find it. Farther along the wall I was looking for the black painted angler and I managed to find it. I pointed it out to Dama and she then spotted a great red-fingered angler about a meter away that I missed completely.
At the end of the wall I headed towards the Carijoa covered rock and Dama indicated she was heading up over the end of the wall. I was a little confused as I thought she was ending the dive early. I was about to follow her when I noticed a weedy seadragon right next to Carijoa Rock. I thought I'd be able to catch up to Dama after taking photos. I then spotted two pygmy pipehorses in the Carijoa and was about to take photos of them and swim on when Dama swam up to me. She'd just gone to check out the orange painted angler on the other side of the wall. I photographed the pygmies and then followed Dama to the angler. Dama also spotted a pygmy on the other end of the rock from the angler.
A little further along the reef I spotted three pygmies on the rock that Ron and Donna had shown me. I pointed them out to Dama. I then looked on the rock up from Carijoa Rock (Slope Rock) for pygmies and found a tiny pink one but none of the others we have seen there.
Dama said she was heading to shallower water so I followed her. She spotted another grey red-fingered angler on the side of a rock just up from Slope Rock.
We went to Seahorse Rock and tried to find the two White's seahorses. While I was looking for seahorses Dama found a little dragonfish on the sand just up from Seahorse Rock. We took turns in taking photographs of it. I kept going back to Seahorse Rock to look for the seahorses. On one trip I found the male in some sponges on the top at the south-eastern end. On another trip I found the female on a white honeycomb sponge just below the rock. I was about to show the seahorses to Dama when I realised she'd gone. I had a quick look for the cowries, took some more photographs of the little dragonfish before heading off myself. I followed the rocks while doing my safety stop and exited on the rocks between the little bay and the point. Dama was waiting for me.
Buddy
Dama Rodrigues
Seas
Slight
Visibility
5 to 10 metres
Duration
95 minutes
Maximum depth
12.3 m
Average depth
9.5 m
Water temperature
16.7°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEST
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
High
1:00am
1.42m
Low
7:27am
0.55m
High
1:54pm
1.44m
Low
8:03pm
0.73m
Camera gear
Camera
Nikon D7000
Lens
Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED
Housing
Ikelite 6801.70
Lens port
Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41
Strobe
2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161
Photographs
Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.
Little dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis. 8 m.
Little dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis. 8.1 m.
Little dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis. 8.2 m.
Little dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis. 8 m.
Little dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis. 8.2 m.
Little dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis. 8.1 m.
Little dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis. 8.2 m.