Dive Details

Location

Date

Friday 22 September 2017

Time

8:34am - 10:11am

Details

High tide was at 9:30 so we'd have an hour of incoming tide and then the rest of the dive would be after the tide change. It was going to be interesting to see what happens with the visibility as it has been so weird of late.

We jumped in at The Steps and when we were ready we descended and swam to the sand line. Roney stayed high and we got separated - which was funny as we were discussing buddy separation immediately before the dive.

I continued along the sand line until I got to the new pair of red widebody pipefish. Both pipefish were there.

I swam on to the rock with the larger black painted anglerfish. I found it straight away.

I continued on to Little Big Rock. The yellow red-fingered anglerfish was in its usual place. I looked on Little Big Rock for pygmy pipehorses but could not find any. I was surprised to see a juvenile zebra lionfish between 2 and 3 centimetres long. It was out of season by a long way to see one so small. I wasn't able to find any pygmy pipehorses. While I was looking, Roney caught up to me. He thought I was behind him and was waiting for me to catch up to him.

We headed to Diversity Rock. I found the male pygmy pipehorse there but could not find any others after much searching.

I followed the sand line all the way to Big Rock. Just before Big Rock I found the small black painted angler on the rock below Hand Rock. I also found the female pygmy pipehorse. On Big Rock I found my red pygmy pipehorse and Roney's pink one. By the time I got back to the rock below Hand Rock the angler had moved.

I swam along the top of the reef to New Basket Star Rock. The basket star was on its new usual sponge.

We headed for Little Big Rock and I saw a Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch crawling across the sand.

At Little Big Rock I looked for pygmies again but still couldn't find any. I swam back past the yellow red-fingered angler, the larger black painted angler and the pair of red wide-body pipefish.

I headed for the boulders, ascending to 5 metres and doing my safety stop as I swam to Split Rock. After finishing my safety stop I exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 metres

Duration

96 minutes

Maximum depth

15.7 m

Average depth

12.2 m

Water temperature

15.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

3:21am

0.31m

High

9:34am

1.60m

Low

3:41pm

0.37m

High

9:48pm

1.58m