Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 20 April 2019

Time

8:16am - 9:43am

Buddy

Matt Smith, Scott

Seas

Some surge

Visibility

3 to 8 metres

Duration

87 minutes

Surface interval

Maximum depth

14.7 m

Average depth

11.4 m

Water temperature

19.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

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

Low

2:46am

0.29m

High

8:54am

1.71m

Low

2:57pm

0.35m

High

9:15pm

1.87m

Details

Matt joined me again today for dive and brought his friend Scott. Matt was shooting video again and wouldn't be interested in anglerfish and pygmy pipehorses. I wasn't sure about Scott. I had replaced the sync cable for my strobes and they worked fine last night. Unfortunately, I had the same problems in the morning.

Other folks I knew got in just before us and some others were doing The Leap. The tide was quite high when we got in so I walked out on the shelf and jumped in without my fins, putting them on n the water. When the three of us were ready we descended to the sand. The visibility was 5 to 8 metres and the water temperature between 19 and 20°C. There was some surge.

I swam out to the rocks in front of the entry and started to look for anglerfish. I didn't find any on the first rocks and headed to the large rocks with sea tulips. I was devastated to not find "Raphael", the yellow Red-fingered Anglerfish, in his usual spot. I looked carefully in the hole but he wasn't there. I looked for young anglerfish as I figured if he'd moved on the eggs had hatched but I could not see anything resembling a baby anglerfish. By the time I'd finished searching, Matt and Scott had got ahead of me.

I stayed high and swam on to the orange Red-fingered Anglerfish near Di's Rock. Fortunately, it was still there. I took some photographs and the strobes fired all but once.

I headed down to the pipefishes hole and spotted the Sawtooth Pipefish in the hole and managed a couple of photographs before it disappeared.

I swam along the sand line a short way looking for the juvenile Weedy Seadragon. I found it in the kelp. This time my strobes only worked on 6 out of 10 shots. I looked for Matt and Scott but they were not in sight.

I headed up the reef to where the off-white/yellow Red-fingered Anglerfish has been. It was on the same rock that I've seen it on for the past 8 days. I looked around for people to show but there was no-one nearby.

I continued on to the seahorses. As I arrived Scott was photographing the grey Red-fingered Anglerfish near the top of the rock where the seahorses often are. PJ was there, too, and he pointed out "David" who was nearby but slightly lower on the rock.

I swam on to the basket star and then down to the rock past Diversity Rock where I saw the white Red-fingered Anglerfish yesterday. It was still there. I looked around for the cryptic one that Mike had found yesterday but could not see it - which of course didn't mean it wasn't there.

I headed to the white male pygmy pipehorse and took some photographs before pointing it out to Scott. I then looked for pink male pygmy and the cryptic female, finding them both.

I continued towards Big Rock and spotted a Weedy Seadragon on the way. I found George's orange Red-fingered Anglerfish on the rock it's been on lately.

I swam down to Hand Rock and the rock below and looked for pygmy pipehorses but found none.

I headed back towards The Steps as Michael and two others who'd come from The Leap swam by. I overtook them on the way to the pygmies. I was happy to show the pygmies to them but they didn't seem interested.

I went back to the white Red-fingered Anglerfish. It yawned a few times while I was there but my strobes misfired and I only got one decent shot of the yawning.

I stopped at "David" and the grey Red-fingered Anglerfish on the way back. Neither had moved. I then visited the off-white/yellow Red-fingered Anglerfish again. Just past the off-white/yellow anglerfish, I spotted the other white Red-fingered Anglerfish.

I headed back to The Steps via Di's Rock and the orange Red-fingered Anglerfish. I got to the large rock with sea tulips in front of the entry and looked where "Raphael" had been. He was there! I'm possitive he wasn't at the start of the dive but he was there now. This made 7 Red-fingered Anglerfish on the one dive. If I could just find that small one on the nearby rock that I'd found a week ago, it would be 8. Alas, I couldn't find it.

I swam to the boulders and Split Rock. I spotted the juvenile Half-moon Triggerfish again and took a few photographs before starting my safety stop.

I finished my safety stop and swam underwater to the exit where I got out.