Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 24 February 2018

Time

11:04am - 12:32pm

Details

After yesterday's bad dive I really didn't know how today would be. The water looked a lot calmer but I wasn't sure about the visibility. I sort of had to dive at The Monument as there was an event to celebrate the life of Dima Ross (Della's son) at The Monument. I hadn't dived The Monument for two weeks so it would be good to get back.

I got in at the protected area around one third of the way to The Steps. As it was only an hour after low tide the water there was quite shallow and small waves were breaking over the outside I was able to wade out to the drop off without much trouble. I descended and swam at around 30° to the sand line. The visibility was 2 to 3 metres and there was only a gentle surge. The water temperate was actually close to 18°C but it did not feel that cold. I turned left and headed towards the point.

I cruised along the sand line until Block Rock. Here I came in from the sand line and checked out the rocks, mainly looking for anglerfishes. I checked out the rocks closely all the way to the wall.

When I got to the wall, I dropped down to the sand and looked in the kelp for the juvenile weedy seadragons I'd seen 2 weeks ago. I found at least one of them. I may have found the second one or just the first one had moved after I initially found it.

I went back to the wall and checked out all the sponge covered rocks for anglerfishes. It has been a few weeks since I last saw the orange red-fingered anglerfish and I keep hoping it will show up again.

At the end of the wall I went up and over to the rocks where the orange painted anglerfish had been last year. I looked for pygmy pipehorses on the rocks but couldn't find any.

I swam along and down to Carijoa Rock, found nothing of interest there, and then swam up to Slope Rock and the surrounding rocks. I looked for Dama's red male pygmy pipehorse but it was not there. I did find a pair of pygmy pipehorses not far from where the red male had been. There was a redish male but he had a lot more appendages that Dama's one, and a cryptic female. I looked around the area for more pygmy pipehorses but found none. By now the water temperature had increased to 21°C but the visibility had dropped to under 2 metres.

I continued along the reef and past Split Rock. I always hope that I'll find seahorses at Split Rock. It has happened in the past so why not again? Just past Split Rock I looked for the pygmies Mike and I had seen before. I couldn't find any in either location.

I swam on to where we've found red-fingered anglerfish in the past. I checked all the usual rocks and the unusual ones but found nothing.

I headed along the wall keeping my eye out for pygmy pipehorses and anglerfishes.

I continued past the end of the wall to the point and then up over to the large rock covered in Carijoa. I tried to remember where Mike had said the dark orange red-fingered anglerfish had moved to but couldn't so I just looked all around the rock. I found in on the under side near where we'd seen the large orange red-fingered anglerfish that John had showed us. There was also an spotted wobbegong on top of the rock just like Mike had said.

I continued over the sand to the rock where "Sunshine", the yellow female pot-bellied seahorse, has been. I found the rock despite the low visibility but even after much searching I wasn't able to find "Sunshine". This was not the first time I haven't been able to find her when the visibility has been poor.

I headed back to the large rock with the anglerfish and then headed east towards the exit. I ascended to 5 metres and started my safety stop as I followed the rocks to the exit. I headed into the bay area and surfaced as the water got shallow. I realised it was too shallow to swim in and the breaking waves would have me beached on a rock so I headed north a little ways and came up on the rocks. As I was swimming in an eagle ray swam past quite closely. I easily got up onto the rocks.

Seas

Slight

Visibility

1 to 3 metres

Duration

88 minutes

Maximum depth

12.5 m

Average depth

9.8 m

Water temperature

18.0°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

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

High

3:30am

1.54m

Low

10:04am

0.56m

High

4:03pm

1.26m

Low

10:01pm

0.57m

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

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161

Photographs

Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.

Male Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 10 m.
 

Female Sydney pygmy pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri. 10.1 m.
 

Red-fingered anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus. 9.4 m.