Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 31 March 2018

Time

8:19am - 10:00am

Details

For Easter Saturday, Mike joined me for a dive at The Leap. It was my first dive at The Leap in over 2 weeks. Conditons at The Steps were calm but the surface waters at The Leap were quite choppy due to the wind.

We jumped in from the shelf as there was too much water over the low platform. The choppy water meant that if we timed our entry we wouldn't have far to drop. Once we were ready we descended and swam at around 40° to the sand line. Visibility was between 5 and 10 metres and the water temperature around 19°C. There was not much surge and no real current with it being so close to high tide. We turned left and headed towards The Steps.

We swam past Seahorse Rock and on to the flat rocks with sponges. There was a weedy seadragon on the sand at the start of the first flat rock. I took ID shots of it while Mike went on to the overhang. When I caught up with him he was photographing "Clyde" the male weedy seadragon under the overhang. I then took some photographs. There was a third weedy seadragon (a female I think) between the two flat rocks.

We swam on to Southern Cross Rock. Mike got there first and started photographing the pygmy pipehorses on the side of the rock. I went on to the next rock to look for the black painted anglerfish that had been there. I couldn't find it. I came back to Southern Cross Rock and found the anglerfish not far from where Mike was photographing the pygmy pipehorses. I pointed it out to Mike after he'd finished with the pygmies. I then looked for the pygmies. There was a pair together and a third one to the left on the other side of the green hand sponge.

MIke went on a head to Seadragon Alley and I followed a little while later. I hadn't gone far into Seadragon Alley when I spotted a juvenile weedy seadragon. It was probably the one I'd seen 3 weeks ago. It had grown in that time. While I was photographing it, Mike swam back and I showed it to him. I left Mike with the juvie weedy and continued. Towards the end of Seadragon Alley I found another adult weedy seadragon.

After he end of Seadragon Alley I looked for the pair of red Stigmatopra sp. pipefish in their usual algae but they were not in either of them and the algae themselves had somewhat broken down. I headed back towards where I had first found the single with the parasite and found them. I'm sure it is the same pair as one was duller than the other. Mike caught up to me but was in deco so had to leave to get less depth.

I continued on alone. I headed up the reef a bit but kept an eye on the sand line for weedy seadragons and ghostpipefish. I was also looking for anglerfishes on the rocks I passed.

After Big Rock I checked out the rock below Hand Rock. I found the whitish male pygmy pipehorse at the base of the rock. I couldn't find the female.

I swam on to Square Rock and found the white male pygmy pipehorse. I couldn't find any of the others. Nearby I spotted a juvenile bridled triggerfish just outside its crevice.

I went to the rock where the one-eyed female White's seahorse has been and found her on the shoreline side of the rock near the yellow sponge. I started looking around the area for the Miamira magnifica nudibranch I'd seen yesterday when I bumped into Daniela, Wendy, and Roney. We were all looking around the area when Daniela spotted a white/pink red-fingered anglerfish. It was the same one that had been near Big Rock for quite some time but had been missing.

I swam back along the top of the reef, past Sponge Hole and New Basket Star Rock, and on to Little Big Rock. I found the cryptic pygmy pipehorse in the higher rock and then Roney pointed out the white female pygmy pipehorse hiding on the rock with the purple sponges.

I continued along the sand line to the yellow red-fingered anglerfish. Just past the anglerfish I spotted a Nembrotha sp. nudibranch.

I swam to the boulders and ascended to 5 metres. I started my safety stop as I swam to Split Rock. At Split Rock I finished my safety stop and then swam underwater to the exit. High tide and low swell made the exit easy.

Buddy

Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 10 metres

Duration

100 minutes

Maximum depth

21.7 m

Average depth

14.6 m

Water temperature

19.1°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides

Low

2:56am

0.34m

High

9:08am

1.79m

Low

3:27pm

0.28m

High

9:37pm

1.69m