Dive Details

Location

Logged dive number

1672

Date

Monday 25 March 2019

Time

10:36am - 11:51am

Buddy

Georgia Nester

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 20 metres

Duration

73 minutes

Surface interval

Maximum depth

11.8 m

Average depth

8.8 m

Water temperature

20.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

12:13am

1.73m

Low

6:39am

0.41m

High

12:41pm

1.46m

Low

6:35pm

0.53m

Details

Today was my third dive with Georgia to show her Weedy Seadragons so she could collect water samples as part of her PhD project. Today we were at Bare Island. We would dive the eastern side of the island. Last time I dived here (16 December 2018), I saw 3 Weedy Seadragons: one adult male with the remnants of eggs and two juveniles. I was hopeful I would be able to find at least one for Georgia.

We got in from the shelf near the pole on the eastern side of the island. It was so calm there was barely a ripple hitting the island. Georgia accidentally dropped her fins and I dived down to get them, hence the extra part of my dive profile at the start of the dive.

We descended and swam east over the kelp to the sand line. Visibility was between 10 and 20 metres and the water temperature around 22°C. There was no surge but the incoming tidal current was quite strong.

We hit the sand line near the isolated kelp patches where the juvenile Weedy Seadragons were in December. We had a quick swim around in case there were more there but we found nothing.

We followed the sand line south and checked out the kelp beds as we went. We headed a long way along and the reef started to turn to the south-west. We came to a large kelp garden and I spotted a small adult Weedy Seadragon, probably a male. Georgia took a sample of water near the weedy while I took ID shots.

We swam a little farther along the kelp garden and quickly found another small adult. Again, Georgia took samples and I took ID photographs.

We continued to the end of the kelp garden and then turned and came back over the garden again but this time away from the sand line. I found a female weedy seadragon and we repeated the sample and photograph process.

We kept on our way back and I spotted another small adult hiding in the kelp. I checked the photographs of the first one we saw to confirm it was a different individual. I then took photographs and Georgia took a sample.

We followed the sand line back. On the way I spotted a juvenile Gunther's butterflyfish. We arrived to where we first hit the sand line and checked out the isolated kelp patches again. We then swam to the cave area. Georgia took her final sample here.

We swam around and through the large rocks towards the gap between the mainland and the island. I spotted a small Heniochus sp. bannerfish.

As we swam up towards the bridge I noticed a rosy weedfish in the kelp and stopped to take photographs. This was handy as it was at 5 metres so we could do our safety stop. It wasn't moving too much and I managed to get some OK photographs.

We continued under the bridge and along the edge of the kelp before swimming to the ramp where we exited.