Dive at The Monument, Kurnell, NSW on Sunday 27 August 2017

Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 27 August 2017

Time

9:48am - 11:25am

Details

This would be my last dive in Sydney before heading to Rapid Bay and I wanted it to be good. I was also hoping to find the leaf scorpionfish again and it was Dama's only dive of the weekend so The Monument was the only logical choice.

It was quite calm on the bay and we entered from the protected area about one third of the way to The Steps. There were some small waves coming in but nothing to cause any issues. The surface water was beautifully clear and It looked good for the dive. We floated out to the edge of the shelf and when ready we descended and headed for the sand line. I was immediately disappointed by the poor visibility. We had 5-10 metres yesterday (if not better) but today it was barely 5 metres and yet it had been calm. It was also 16°C. At least there wasn't much surge. The other thing was the huge amount of kelp. Most of it was not attached and was just sitting along the sand line. We turned left and headed towards The Monument.

We swam along to Block Rock. I found my little orange painted angler in its usual place. We looked around the area for other animals. I was surprised not to see a weedy seadragon in the area.

We continued to the wall. I found the black painted angler near to where it had been on Friday. I also found the grey red-fingered angler in pretty much the same place it had been on Friday.

We swam over the wall to the other orange painted angler. It had moved to the adjacent rock and was sitting at the base of a red chimney sponge. While I was taking photos I noticed it was shaking its lure so I shot some video. I managed to capture both the lure shaking and it yawning. I then looked for the pygmy pipehorses on the same rock. Dama pointed out the male who was just in front of the angler. We couldn't find the female.

We headed further along the reef and and I found the red male pygmy pipehorse hiding in the same alga it's been hiding for the last few days. I pointed him out to Dama. After taking some photos I swam down to Carijoa Rock. Dama was already there and she'd found the pink male pygmy pipehorse. I tried to find the female but couldn't. I then remembered that I hadn't taken any photographs of the male pygmy with the angler so I headed back. The angler had moved and was shaking its lure again so I took some video of it and photographs of the pygmy.

I swam back to Dama who was looking for more pygmies. I looked for Dama's red male pygmy and the female I have seen on the same rock but could not find either. I found the male pygmy pipehorse on Slope Rock. I then looked again for Dama's red pygmy and found it hiding.

We swam up to Seahorse Rock. I found the male White's seahorse on top as well as the two spindle cowries. I then had a look for the female seahorse and found her in the white honeycomb sponge at the base of the rock. I pointed the seahorses out to Dama. I then looked for the little dragonfish but was not able to find it.

We headed up to the Capnella colonies to look for the egg cowries. I only found one and then went looking for the leaf scorpionfish. I found the area immediately but didn't initially see the leaf scorpionfish. I then looked under a rock right next to where Daniela first spotted it and it was there. I took some photos and some video, including it yawning.

We still had air left so I headed back to the sand patch above Seahorse Rock to look for the little dragonfish again. On the way I found the other egg cowrie out on the sand and not in the soft coral.

We then called the dive and we swam for the exit doing a short safety stop along the way. I managed to navigate directly to the bay area to the south east of the point which made the exit easy.

Buddy

Dama Rodrigues

Seas

Slight surge

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

12.4 m

Average depth

9.6 m

Water temperature

16.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

5:51am

0.49m

High

12:14pm

1.47m

Low

6:26pm

0.61m

Video

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.