Dive Details
Location
Date
Wednesday 16 August 2017
Time
11:37am - 1:11pm
Details
There were very strong westerly hitting Sydney but I was confident that Kurnell would be sufficiently protected for a dive. I looked at The Monument first and while it was diveable, the surface layer was being chopped up by the wind and I wasn't sure what impact that would have on visibility. I decided that The Steps would be a safer option (and if I'd thought about it, The Leap would have been good, too).
I jumped in at The Steps and was immediately blown away by how good the visibility was. I descended to the sand line and the visibility was at least 10 metres and closer to 15 metres or even better. There was almost no surge and the temperature was around 16°C. I turned right and headed towards Big Rock.
I swam along the sand line and hadn't gone far before I spotted a male weedy seadragon with eggs. It looked like he was having trouble swimming as he was laden down with the eggs.
I continued to Little Big Rock where I found 2 pygmy pipehorses, a male and a female, in the Carijoa colonies.
I swam on to Diversity Rock. I found the white male pygmy pipehorse on the big rock before Diversity Rock. I found a pygmy pipehorse on Diversity Rock.
I headed in to New Basket Star Rock and the red widebody pipefish. On the way I saw the Nembrotha sp. nudibranch. I found the red widebody pipefish in its usual alga. I was still not able to find the second one. I shot some video which did not come out well. The basket star was still sitting on the white honeycomb sponge.
I swam along the top of the reef towards Big Rock. I looked on Slope Rock for pygmy pipehorses but found none. I found a female pygmy pipehorse on the rock below Hand Rock. I looked around the area for more pygmies but found none.
I headed back to The Steps along the top of the reef. I looked for more red widebody pipefish in the red algae but found none. I stayed on the top of the reef looking at the rocks for anglers and other critters but found nothing of note. I headed up to the boulders and had a small male crested horn shark nearly swim into me. I ascended to 5 metres and did my safety stop as I swam to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop and swam to the exit. My exit was easy.
Seas
Slight
Visibility
10 to 15 metres
Duration
93 minutes
Maximum depth
14.8 m
Average depth
11.8 m
Water temperature
16.1°C
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Botany Bay AEST
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
High
2:29am
1.32m
Low
8:36am
0.51m
High
3:12pm
1.61m
Low
9:50pm
0.53m
Species Seen
Species
Common name
Number
Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri
Sydney pygmy pipehorse
5
Phyllopteryx taeniolatus
Weedy seadragon
1
Stigmatopora sp.
Red widebody pipefish
1
Heterodontus galeatus
Crested horn shark
1
Port Jackson shark
3
Astrosierra amblyconus
Basket star
1
Jorunna sp.
Nudibranch
1
Nembrotha sp.
Nudibranch
1