Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Time

10:42am - 12:26pm

Details

After working the last 4 days and only getting a quick dive at The Steps in on Sunday morning before work I was keen to dive at The Leap again. I wanted to see the great seahorse as well as all the other syngnathids I regularly see at The Leap. Mike and Roney joined me. Noel, Di and Greg were also going to join us but they were ready a long time before us and went on ahead. Aiden and Ken also got in before us.

Mike and I got in from the low platform and Roney from the shelf. We swam out on the surface and grouped before descending. We headed towards the sand line at around 30° arriving just before Ian's Pygmy Rock. The visibility was around 10 metres, perhaps a little better, but there was a lot of snot in the water making it look worse than it was. The water temperature was just above 15°C and there wasn't much surge. The current was quite strong. We turned left and headed for The Steps.

I didn't stop at Ian's Pygmy Rock as we wanted to get to the great seahorse earlier in the dive. We swam past Seahorse Rock and on to the flat rocks and the overhang. Ken and Aiden were there. I found the weedy seadragon with the hole in his head in the gap between the two flat rocks. It looks like some of his eggs have started to hatch.

I continued on past Bent Stick Rock and found another weedy seadragon on the sand.

I stopped at Southern Cross Rock to look for pygmy pipehorses. I found a small female first. I then found one of the males and then one of the other males followed by a third male. Finally I found a female. I think there are actually 6 pygmy pipehorses here: 3 males and 3 females. I just haven't seen all of them on the one dive.

I continued on towards Seadragon Alley. Before the start of Seadragon Alley I spotted a weedy seadragon. In Seadragon Alley itself I found a male weedy with eggs.

At the end of Seadragon Alley I noticed a lot of divers near where the great seahorse had been so I waited and look for pygmy pipehorses on the rock with the green sponges. I found a female hidden behind one of the sponges but I initially couldn't find the male. I swam on to the rock the great seahorse had been on and it was still surrounded by divers. George was photographing a grey red-fingered angler on the rock but I couldn't see the seahorse anywhere. I swam around and spotted her a sponge on the rock above where the pair of red widebody pipefish are. I then checked out the pipefish before taking photos of the anglerfish. I went back to the pipefish and then headed back to look for the male pygmy pipehorse. On the way I spotted a weedy seadragon in the red algae. Back at the rock I found the male pygmy and showed Roney and Mike. By now all the other divers had gone so I went back to take more photographs of the anglerfish.

Roney swam up and indicated he'd seen a turtle so I went to look at it but we couldn't find it. We continued on to Big Rock. Roney pointed out a grey red-fingered anglerfish. He then pointed out a male pygmy pipehorse. I looked for a female but couldn't find one. He showed both the anglerfish and the pipehorse to Mike. I went back to the grey anglerfish and the other two continued on.

I swam on to Big Rock and found my pink male pygmy pipehorse as his partner. At the other end of Big Rock I found Roney's male pygmy pipehorse but couldn't find the female. At the rock below Hand Rock I found the whiteish red-fingered anglerfish, the black painted anglerfish, and the male pygmy pipehorse.

I swam along the sand line towards Diversity Rock and spotted a weedy seadragon along the way. I looked on Diversity Rock for pygmy pipehorses but found none. I looked on Little Big Rock for pygmy pipehorses but found none and I couldn't find any anglerfish in the area around Little Big Rock.

I continued along the sand line to the other pair of red widebody pipefish and found them both in their alga.

I headed for the boulders and found a clown toby along the way. At the boulders I ascended to 5 metres and started my safety stop as I swam to Split Rock. I finished my safety stop and swam right to the exit underwater. I got out on the shelf.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues, Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 15 metres

Duration

104 minutes

Maximum depth

20.6 m

Average depth

14.8 m

Water temperature

15.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:22am

1.26m

Low

5:58am

0.62m

High

12:29pm

1.56m

Low

7:12pm

0.53m