Dive Details

Location

Logged dive number

1770

Date

Sunday 19 April 2020

Time

2:20pm - 4:05pm

Buddy

Cody Sheridan, Emiko Kawamoto, Daniela Stark

Seas

Slight current and surge

Visibility

5 to 8 metres

Duration

106 minutes

Surface interval

Maximum depth

13.2 m

Average depth

10.0 m

Water temperature

18.6°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at The Monument AEST

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

High

5:58am

1.56m

Low

12:26pm

0.52m

High

6:37pm

1.47m

Details

While we are still allowed to dive, I want to try to dive once per week at The Leap/Steps and once per week at The Monument so I can keep track of the regular animals I see. I dive The Leap yesterday so today was a Monument dive. Daniela also joined Cody, Emiko and me.

I had some problems with the zipper on my drysuit. It kept getting stuck under my left arm. I got Daniela to help with it and she managed to get it closed but didn't tell me what the problem was.

We walked down to my regular entry point and waded out. As soon as I dropped in to the water at the edge of the shelf I felt water gushing into my suit. I felt the area where the zipper was getting stuck and there was a gap around a centimetre long where the zip was not closed properly. Argh! Emiko had issues with her tank walking out and had to go back to fix it. It seemed like an eternity waiting with water dripping into my suit. In hindsight I should have gone back to sure and attempted to fix it.

We descended and swam to the sand line. The visibility was around 8 metres and it was quite calm. The water temperature was just under 19°C which was obvious to me because I had a constant stream of water coming into my suit. We turned left and headed towards Sutherland Point.

I was having trouble concentrating because of the constant trickle of cool water into my suit but I kept going so I could check on all the regular animals. I got to Pygmy Playground and looked for the pygmies on the side of the square rock. I found two which I believe are the usual two but could not get decent photographs of them because of the angle they were at. I then looked for "Dane", the Pot-bellied Seahorse, but he was not in the sea tulips he was in last weekend and I could not see him anywhere else.

I swam along the wall and then up and over it. I looked for the small grey Red-fingered Anglerfish I'd found last Saturday. It wasn't on the rock I'd seen it on. I looked on the next rock and spotted it. When the others swam up I pointed it out.

I headed over to the white female pygmy pipehorse near the orange sponge. It was still there. I looked for a male and also the Girdled Pipefish but found neither. I pointed the pygmy out to the others.

I moved slowly along the reef, still distracted by the water leaking into my suit. I looked for pygmies and the small orange Red-fingered Anglerfish in the area before Split Rock. I found neither but I did find an Eastern Frogfish.

I looked in the crevice above Split Rock for the Upside-down Pipefish but could not see them.

I headed along the reef noticing the orange Red-fingered Anglerfish with eggs was gone. I got to Four Pygmies Rock and looked for the pygmies there. I couldn't find them. Cody swam up and I thought he pointed out a pygmy to Emiko who started to photograph it. (I found out later he didn't find a pygmy).

I swam up to the well camouflaged Red-fingered Anglerfish with eggs. It was still there and still had eggs. I went back to Four Pygmies Rock and got Daniela to follow me up to the anglerfish and I pointed it out to her.

I headed back towards Four Pygmies Rock and Cody pointed out a small pygmy on a rock a few metres away. I took some photographs.

I looked on Four Pygmies Rock for the pygmy that Cody had found (not realising he hadn't found one) but couldn't find it. I kept looking and found two pygmies near the top of the rock. I don't believe these were the same two that were at the bottom of the rock.

I headed to Valley of the Pygmies. I looked for the pygmy I'd seen in the valley last weekend but couldn't find it. I had a quick look on the rock but didn't have a lot of interest because I was cold.

I swam along the base of the wall towards the two Carijoa covered bommies. Daniela was with me but I didn't know where the other two were. I looked for Weedy Seadragons on the sand but didn't see any.

We headed past the two bommies and the only interesting thing I saw was a small moray.

We continued around the corner and up to the large Carijoa covered rock just before the start of the East-West Wall. I looked in the shelf and found both white pygmy pipehorses although neither of them were in the Carijoa. I looked for Daniela to point them out but I couldn't see her.

I started along the base of the wall and then noticed Daniela above me. Had she been there the whole time? We continued past where the previous seahorses had been and I had a quick look for them. As we were heading to the new seahorses I spotted a male Pot-bellied Seahorse in some sea tulips. I thought it might be "Jose". I took some photographs and pointed him out to Daniela. I also spotted a Mourning Cuttlefish.

We continued to the new seahorses and I found "Sunny" in the sea tulips where I've seen him before. I pointed him out to Daniela. We looked for the other seahorses but couldn't initially find them. Then we spotted both "Starlight" and "Harry" and the same time attached to kelp on the sand. We took photographs of them and then Daniela indicated she was leaving.

I headed back to "Jose" via "Sunny", to check out his left side as that's how I recognise him. I bumped into Cody on the way. I looked at the left side of the seahorse between the new seahorses and where the older seahorses were and it was "Jose".

I swam back to the newer seahorses and pointed them out to Cody.

I was really cold now and so continued along the base of the wall. I was hoping to find the male White's Seahorse I'd found on Saturday. I looked in the sponges at the base of the wall but could not find the seahorse.

I ascended the wall and started my safety stop. I noticed that Cody was just behind me. I headed south and kept swimming until it was too shallow. I waded out through the channel. I had water in my suit past my knees.