Dive Details

Location

Logged dive number

1739

Date

Thursday 2 January 2020

Time

10:56am - 1:08pm

Seas

Moderate current and slight surge

Visibility

2 to 10 metres

Duration

131 minutes

Surface interval

 2 days 0:33 (days hh:mm)

Maximum depth

13.1 m

Average depth

10.4 m

Water temperature

20.0°C
                                       

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

2:10am

1.26m

Low

7:42am

0.74m

High

1:56pm

1.45m

Low

8:44pm

0.54m

Details

For my first dive of 2020 I decided to go to The Monument. It has been over three weeks since I last dived at The Monument and I was keen to check out Pygmy Playground but also the Pot-bellied Seahorses on the East-West Wall. I usually run out of time/air by the time I get to the seahorses so today I used a 15L tank to give me an extra 20 minutes or so.

I got in at the protected area between The Monument and The Steps and waded out to the edge of the platform before putting my fins on. I descended and swam to the sand line. The visibility looked very good at around 10 metres and the water temperature was between around 21°C. There was a moderate current and only slight surge.

I headed north-west along the sand line towards Sutherland Point. I was looking for Weedy Seadragons but found none. I stopped at Block Rock and had a good look on it and the adjacent sponge covered rock for seahorses and anything else of interest.

I continued to the deep wall. I headed along the wall to the square rock where the Dwarf Lionfish normally resides in the orange finger sponge. I couldn't see it there.

I looked on the side of the wall for pygmy pipehorses. I spotted a whiteish male hanging on to a purple sponge. I looked for others on the side of the rock but found none.


Male Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 12.2m.

I moved onto the ledge in Pygmy Playground. I looked for pygmy pipehorses there. It took me a while before I found my first one and then I gradually found more. I eventually found 1 male, 2 females and 1 juvenile.


Male Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 12.1m.


Juvenile Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 11.6m.


Female Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 11.9m.


Female Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 12m.

I looked along the sand line for Weedy Seadragons and found one male with eggs.


Weedy Seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 12.6m.


Eggs on the tail of a male Weedy Seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 12.5 m.


Weedy Seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. 12.4m.

I went up over the wall to the area behind the wall. I looked for "Bob", the orange Painted Anglerfish. John had pointed it out to me 3 weeks ago. I found the sponge but could not find the anglerfish.

I headed along the reef to Slope Rock. I spotted a Reaper Cuttlefish near Slope Rock. I looked for pygmy pipehorses on Slope Rock and surrounding rocks but found none. I did find an octopus.


Reaper Cuttlefish, Sepia mestus. 10.8m.


Common Sydney Octopus, Octopus tetricus. 10.9m.

The visibility dropped to around 5 metres. I don't know why that happened as the tide was still incoming.

I looked for the orange Red-fingered Anglerfish I'd seen below Seahorse Rock on the last few dives but could not find it.

I swam up to Seahorse Rock to look for the Nembrotha sp. nudibranch but could not find it.

I dropped back down to the reef and had another look for the orange Red-fingered Anglerfish. A small group of divers swam up and were sort of hanging around me for the next 20 minutes or so.

I swam over Split Rock and looked on the next few rocks for pygmy pipehorses. I hadn't gone far past Split Rock when I spotted an orange Red-fingered Anglerfish. I took some photographs and then noticed a juvenile Eastern Smooth Boxfish nearby.


Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 11.2m.


Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 11.4m.


Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 11.3m.


Juvenile Eastern Smooth Boxfish, Anoplocapros inermis. 11.6m.

I continued along the reef to the rock with the Dendronephthya soft coral colony where a pair of pink pygmy pipehorses had been. Most of the soft coral had gone. It looked like it had been ripped off the rock. I couldn't find the pygmy pipehorses either. I also looked around for the grey Red-fingered Anglerfish but could not find it. The other divers swam off at this point. The visibility was now around 3 metres.

I headed down towards Valley of the Pygmies. I hadn't seen any pygmies here in months but was ever hopeful. I found none in the valley but spotted a white female pygmy on the side of the "castle". I looked near the female and found a cryptic male. I looked around the rock for more pygmies but instead found a Dwarf Lionfish and a small Painted Stinkfish.


Female Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 12.5m.


Dwarf Lionfish, Dendrochirus brachypterus. 12.3m.


Painted Stinkfish, Eocallionymus papilio. 12.1m.


Female Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 12.6m.


Male Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 12.1m.

I swam along the NW-SE Wall and then up to the corner and the start of the East-West Wall. I looked for Red-fingered Anglerfish in the spots I have seen them recently but there must have moved.

I checked out the shelf at the start of the East-West Wall and was surprised to find an orange Red-fingered Anglerfish. I looked for pygmy pipehorses but found none.


Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 10.2m.


Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 10m.

I headed along the base of the East-West Wall to the rock where "Tim" and "Jose", the Pot-bellied Seahorses, have been. Both "Tim" and "Jose" were together between the white honeycomb sponge and the orange finger sponge. I took some photographs and then because I still had a lot more gas left I hunted around for a female. I've not had that luxury before. I was thrilled to find a female (who I will call "Gracie") in a sponge on a nearby rock. It made a lot more sense that "Tim" and "Jose" would hang around if there was a female.


Male Pot-bellied Seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Jose"). 10.2m.


Male Pot-bellied Seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Tim"). 10.4m.


Female Pot-Bellied Seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, ("Gracie"). 9.9m.

I still had some gas left so I continued along the wall to look for "Naomi", the yellow White's Seahorse. I looked in all finger sponges in the area but could not find "Naomi". I did spot another juvenile Eastern Smooth Boxfish and a small Green Moray.

I headed up the wall and then swam west along the top of the wall to the break in the kelp and then headed south. I was doing my safety stop as I went.

I started to swim over the kelp but had to stop abruptly when I nearly swam into the tail of a very large stingray. I backed up and went around it. I kept heading south until it was too shallow and I waded out.

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D500

Lens

Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED

Housing

Ikelite 6812.5

Lens port

Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41

Strobe(s)

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161