Dive Details

Location

Date

Sunday 16 September 2018

Time

12:57pm - 2:37pm

Details

For our second dive of the day, Mandy and Joe joined Cody and me for a dive at The Monument. This site has been fantastic of late with respect to both conditions and the animals we have been seeing. There was meant to be a 2-2.5m southerly swell but you couldn't see any impact of it.

We got in through the channel in front of the flagpoles and surface swam out to the start of the wall. I think I have the sight lines right now to hit the spot each time. When we were ready, we descended and hit the start of the East-West wall right where I saw the turtle on Friday. The visibility was around 10 metres and it was calm with no current or surge. The water temperature was around 15°C. We turned right and headed along the wall.

I stopped at the basket star to take photographs before continuing. All the way to the area where "Cody", the yellow male pot-bellied seahorse, used to be I tried to find the rock where I'd seen the juvenile red painted anglerfish on Thursday. I still can't find the rock. I needed to have paid more attention when I found it.

We looked carefully around the area where "Cody" had been but could not find him or the yellowish female White's seahorse. I'm not all that surprised about "Cody" moving on as he's male and he'd go looking for a female, but the White's seahorse has been in that spot for months.

We swam on to the area where "Sandy", the female great seahorse, has been. She wasn't on the sponges I'd seen her on Wednesday and Thursday so we kept looking. I made a wider and wider circle and eventually spotted her on a sea tulip right down near the sand line. I showed the others before moving on.

We moved quite slowly, looking for seahorses, anglerfishes, and anything else of interest as we swam. We swam past the rocks where "Sunshine", the yellow female pot-bellied seahorse, had been, and on to near the eastern end of the wall. I spotted the large orange red-fingered anglerfish. It was on the same rock it has been for the last few weeks but it had moved to the other end. When Mandy and Joe swam up I pointed it out to them.

I then set about looking for the pygmy pipehorses on adjacent rock on the wall. It was a bit crowded as the anglerfish is so much closer to the pygmies now. Cody found the first male and I found the cryptic female nearby, I then spotted the gold and white female. Eventually, Mandy spotted the other male. While Mandy was photographing the pygmies, I looked around the area for my bright orange red-fingered anglerfish. I couldn't find it.

We then cut the corner and headed for the NW-SE wall. I swam past the rock where the small orange red-fingered anglerfish had been but it wasn't in the spot I'd seen it on Thursday and Friday. I swam down, checked my bearings to make sure I was in the right spot and swam back to the rock. On my way back I spotted the anglerfish on the lower side of the rock. I photographed it and pointed it out to the others.

We continued along the NW-SE wall. We dropped down to the sand and I checked out the rock with sponges where I'd spotted the pair of pygmy pipehorses on Friday. I found the exact same spot but could not see the pygmies at all. I checked all around the area but could not find them.

We continued along the reef at the base of the wall. I kept an eye out for the grey red-fingered anglerfish but could not find it. We swam past Split Rock and on to the slope below Seahorse Rock. I found the brown female White's seahorse. I took some photographs before moving on and letting Mandy take photos.

I headed to the rock at the top of the Deep Wall to look for the pair of pygmy pipehorses that have been there. I couldn't find them. While I was looking, Joe spotted a grey red-fingered anglerfish on the next rock.

We dropped over the wall and I checked out the sand area, which was covered in loose kelp, for weedy seadragons but found none. I swam until I was adjacent to where the seahorses have been and swam up to the rocks. "Ginger" and "Virgil" were together on rubble at the base of the rock. Their tails were interlocked and had probably been courting or were just about to. "Gilligan" was on rock. As we swam on I checked for the large dwarf lionfish in the orange finger sponge. It was there.

At the end of the Deep Wall we stopped briefly at the orange red-fingered anglerfish before heading for the shallows. We did our safety stops while swimming along at the base of the drop off and when we got to the spot where the rocks turn in to the shore we surfaced on to the shelf at the protected area a third of the way to The Steps. We waded out.

Buddy

Cody Sheridan, Mandy Durand, Joe

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5 to 15 metres

Duration

100 minutes

Maximum depth

13.0 m

Average depth

10.3 m

Water temperature

15°C

Dive Profile from Garmin Descent Mk1

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

High

12:46am

1.24m

Low

6:40am

0.60m

High

1:14pm

1.49m

Low

7:58pm

0.61m