Dive Details

Location

Date

Wednesday 13 March 2019

Time

1:46pm - 2:58pm

Buddy

Graham Short

Seas

Some surge

Visibility

2 to 5 metres

Duration

72 minutes

Surface interval

 01:05 (hh:mm)

Maximum depth

13.4 m

Average depth

10.4 m

Water temperature

22.3°C
                                       

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

1:23am

1.53m

Low

7:46am

0.59m

High

1:45pm

1.30m

Low

7:43pm

0.62m

Details

For our second dive in the hunt to find red Stigmatopora sp. pipefish we did The Steps. This would give us the chance to cover the areas we didn't have time for on the first dive and to also go over the areas where I have seen them before.

We got in and swam out on the surface before descending to the sand/kelp. Visibility down a little from the previous dive but was still 2 to 5 metres. The water temperature was between 22 and 23°C. It was right on high tide so there was no current.

I headed for the rocks where I have seen small Red-Fingered Anglerfish and I was oping to show them to Graham. I found the right rocks but I was not able to find any anglerfish.

We looked around the rocks and kelp. Graham spotted a Weedy Seadragon and I took some ID photographs.

In the area around the rock where the Pot-Bellied Seahorses used to be there are a number of the algae in which the pipefish are found so we checked a lot of them out.

I was about to check out the hole with the pipefishes but Graham accidentally kicked up the sand so we couldn't see into the hole.

I pointed out the spot where a pair of red pipefish had been. We looked around that area for more algae.

We swam on to the large yellow Red-Fingered Anglerfish and I pointed it out to Graham.

We continued to Little Big Rock. I looked for Dama & Roney's Sawtooth Pipefish but they were not to be seen. I found "David", the Pot-Bellied Seahorse, in the purple sponges on the large rock and pointed him out to Graham. I looked around for "Petra" but could not find her.

We swam on to the basket star and then looked around the sand towards the shore for the red algae and looked in the algae for pipefish. We made our way slowly towards The Leap. I spotted a Weedy Seadragon.

We kept going on this mid-reef until I realised we were just behind Big Rock so I looked for George's Red-Fingered Anglerfish. It was still on the underside of the rock.

We turned and headed back along the sand in the mid-reef area. I spotted a juvenile Blue Groper being cleaned by an Eastern Cleaner Clingfish and got some photographs of the clingfish after the groper swam off.

We stayed shallow but on the sand and continued to check out red algae as we swam towards The Steps.

We ascended to the boulders and did our safety stops as we swam to Split Rock. Graham left me as he was low on air and when I finished my safety stop I swam underwater to the exit where Graham was waiting.