Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 22 April 2018

Time

12:20pm - 1:33pm

Details

Mike joined Trevor and me for our second dive. It had been over a month since I'd last dived at The Monument and that dive was to show Martin and Sonja red-fingered anglerfish. We only found the one dark orange one that I had found a few weeks prior. Mike had dived here recently and saw 4 so we were hoping he'd find them again.

We got in at the protected area about a third of the way to The Steps and waded/swam out to the edge of the wall. We descended to the sand line. Visibility was around 5 metres which was an improvement from the end of the previous dive. The water temperature was 20 to 21°C which was quite pleasant. There was only a gentle surge and not much current. We turned left and headed towards the point.

We swam along the sand line until Block Rock and then we moved up a bit to the reef. I was looking for anglerfishes in the spots I've seen them before but found none.

We continued along the wall and I kept up my search for anglerfishes while also keeping an eye on the sand line for juvenile weedy seadragons. I found none. I also needed to keep up with Mike as he knew where the red-fingered anglerfish were.

I quickly went over the wall to where the orange painted anglerfish was and I'd seen pygmy pipehorses there before. I found nothing.

We swam on to Slope Rock and I had a quick look for pygmy pipehorses in the spots I've seen them before but found none. Mike was just a head and was pointing out a grey red-fingered anglerfish to Trevor. It was on a rock we've seen them before.

We continued along the reef, past Split Rock and on to the area of Four Pygmy Rock and the general area we've seen a few anglerfish in the past. Mike pointed out a second grey red-fingered anglerfish. We looked for more but didn't find any.

We followed the middle wall along and then continued on to the corner. I was keeping an eye on Mike as he knew where the red-fingered anglerfish were. The visibility was dropping so it was getting more difficult to keep tabs on each other. We approached the Carijoa covered rock where John's large orange red-fingered anglerfish had been and my bright orange one first appeared. I saw Mike approaching us and started looking for the bright red anglerfish. I didn't see Mike again. We must have kept missing each other.

Trevor and I headed to the rocks where "Sunshine", the female pot-bellied seahorse has been. The area was covered in kelp. We looked for "Sunshine" but couldn't find her. She may have been there but with all the kelp we'd never find her.

We headed back to the rock we'd last seen Mike. He still wasn't there. We then headed south-east to the next Carijoa covered rock and I spotted the bright orange red-fingered anglerfish hidden in the Carijoa. I showed Trevor.

Trevor indicated he had only 20 bar left so we ascended to 5 metres and continued south-east along the shorline towards the little bay where we'd exit. We continued at around 5 metres until we were out from the exit and then headed in until it was too shallow to dive. We waded out.

Buddy

Trevor Howard, Mike Scotland

Seas

Slight

Visibility

3 to 5 metres

Duration

73 minutes

Maximum depth

13.6 m

Average depth

10.1 m

Water temperature

20.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

12:46am

1.75m

Low

7:42am

0.45m

High

1:47pm

1.31m

Low

7:23pm

0.70m