Aussie diving - May 2012

[Mantra]

Ha. Alcina, you'd want compelling reasons to pass that up methinks.

May I ask - if you get cold at 26-27, how do you survive winter? I ask because my wife is in a similar situation. We were at 18.9 (20m) and she was on the verge of uncomfortable. She was wearing a 5mm semidry with a lavacore skin and a 5mm vest (skin - vest - suit). We'd like to be able to keep diving over winter. It seems a bit much to consider a dry suit.

 

[alcina]

A dry suit is pretty much the only way to go if all that isn't keeping her warm. Our water drops to 19C here in winter and I am seriously considering one - the only reason I haven't taken the plunge yet is that the past few years I haven't been doing much diving when our water is at its coldest. The rest of the time I just suck it up as I'd rather be a bit cold than put on neoprene - I dive in my layered sharkskins most of the year and pop a 3mm on for autumn/spring. Yes, I freeze and turn blue/purple

I assume she has good gloves and boots - might want to consider adding a pair of sharkskin socks under the boots. And a hood if she doesn't already have one. I adore my hooded sharkskin vests!

Maybe also check out a heated vest? I'm waiting for a trip report from someone who just picked one up to see how she liked it before I buy one myself - I think she gets back in mid-June.

 

[ozzydamo]

@Mantra - thanks for the update and it sounds like a great day out diving!!
@bryce -sorry to hear the dive wasn't awesome Thanks for the kind words -I'm hoping to keep getting out for the rest of the month before I head out on holidays in June.
@ferris - thanks, I normally don't stop for them but they have been so cute lately!

Did get out on Friday & Saturday for another four fantastic dives. Viz was about 20m but again a bit cloudy & tons of particles in the water; temp was 26-27C and I'm still feeling the cold. I am such a wuss LOL The viz top to bottom was so good on Saturday that you could not only see the bottom at 15m but identify the fish (and one nudibranch!) from the boat. It was crazy beautiful.

I still can't get over how crazy awesome the turtles are this year - they are just thick at one site. I saw 6 before I was even to the bottom and most of them just look at you for a second then go back to sleep. Also lots of white tip reef sharks, anthias, baitballs, walls of glassfish, huge batfish, the cleaning action is starting to pick up, a few more nudibranchs are about..aw, heck, there's just masses of stuff to see! Friday I had a nurse shark swimming around looking for something for over 8 minutes...really cool! I'll put that video up on my blog later today (probably, I've been sucking at getting stuff up there).

And even the oh so many it's boring to see them fish can pose prettily for you and make you stop for a minute

Hey Alcina,
Love your photos! those bannerfish look perfectly framed up near that crop of reef, it provides some good contrast.

We are lucky here, fisheries are managed more honestly then anywhere else in the world and our pro's use cutting edge techs to stop bycatch as much ass possible, the anti-turtle fouling devises designed into the trawlers here are the best there is...so you can eat your prawns with some peace mind if they are Aussie Prawns!

---------- Post added May 16th, 2012 at 09:26 AM ----------

Ha. Alcina, you'd want compelling reasons to pass that up methinks.

May I ask - if you get cold at 26-27, how do you survive winter? I ask because my wife is in a similar situation. We were at 18.9 (20m) and she was on the verge of uncomfortable. She was wearing a 5mm semidry with a lavacore skin and a 5mm vest (skin - vest - suit). We'd like to be able to keep diving over winter. It seems a bit much to consider a dry suit.

Take the good woman down to sydney for a weekend and get one of these puppies fitted up.....pricey but worth every penny!

Predator & Predator Pro Semi-Dry Suit

 

[alcina]

Thanks for the kind words, ozzydamo!

Not sure where the eco-commentary came from but I don't eat prawns caught here - it's a huge industry in Exmouth - because it's not just turtles but all the other bycatch (some say 40+kgs per kg of prawns) and the massive massive damage they do to the bottom!

 

[ozzydamo]

Thanks for the kind words, ozzydamo!

Not sure where the eco-commentary came from but I don't eat prawns caught here - it's a huge industry in Exmouth - because it's not just turtles but all the other bycatch (some say 40+kgs per kg of prawns) and the massive massive damage they do to the bottom!

So they trawl nets over coral reef?
who's some say>?

In other parts of the world they eat the turtles and everything else, there is no by-catch! the only damage is to the net....sad those that have it better think it's worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUjTHB1lvM

 

[alcina]

They trawl in the Gulf, a muck bottom. The Gulf has massive - 7'+ - sponges & fans plus amazingly diverse critters. I adore diving in the Gulf and we often randomly jump in on a spot as it's all fantastic. Until you get to an area where the trawlers have been through either recently or in years past and it looks like a tabletop - completely barren and flat. When you get into a track it looks just like a bulldozer has gone through, the line is definitive - on one side this amazing stuff and on your other hand, nada! Each to their own, I choose not to eat prawns, many do.

 

[ozzydamo]

They trawl in the Gulf, a muck bottom. The Gulf has massive - 7'+ - sponges & fans plus amazingly diverse critters. I adore diving in the Gulf and we often randomly jump in on a spot as it's all fantastic. Until you get to an area where the trawlers have been through either recently or in years past and it looks like a tabletop - completely barren and flat. When you get into a track it looks just like a bulldozer has gone through, the line is definitive - on one side this amazing stuff and on your other hand, nada! Each to their own, I choose not to eat prawns, many do.

Sounds more like scallop dredging then prawn trawlers, but I am not a local at exmouth(sometimes I wish, but like civilization too much).

Queensland is the opposite, we have had more green zones added every year and lots FB license buy backs, here things are on the improve....so buy Queensland prawns instead!(the prawns are all caught off sand bottoms, because the mud areas are all in protection zones).

All professional trawler operators here have strict quotas, areas and are fitted with GPS trackers.

The problem here is rec boats anchoring on corals, amateur poachers, inexperienced boaties that don't know the no-wash zone boundaries(striking turtle&dugongs) and dive/fishing charter boats with straight thru toilet systems(also taking new divers who stand on the coral).

 

[clownfishsydney]

Did our regular Thursday night dive last night. This time we dived Bare Island. There was a big sea running, at least 2 metres (7 feet). It was also dirty, about 4 m viz (14 feet). We did the right side of the island, what a great dive it was. We saw a couple of dwarf firefish (lionfish), lots of squid and some large flathead. Then, I spotted a large shark! It came in close and I saw that it was a grey nurse shark (sand tiger). It slowly checked us out and then turned around and headed back past us again. Brilliant.

Later on we saw a bright yellow big belly sea horse that has been there for at least 16 months, a wobbegong shark, two pygmy pipehorses, then an angel shark and more. Glad we made the decision to dive despite the very average conditions. One of our best night dives, all within 20 km of the centre of Sydney.

 

[alcina]

clownfish - sounds like a great night out!! I'm very jealous of the sea horses & pipehorses, we just don't get them here really. I think since I've been up in Exy I've seen maybe 4 sea horses (not counting the little tiny ones we see in the weed while we are out whalesharking).

 

[alcina]

The Ningaloo Reef is seriously going crazy lately. The whale shark industry is seeing multiple sharks every day and some fishermen reported a big congregation of whale sharks way up north past the Muiron Islands, DEC has confirmed it and more fishermen are seeing it up there. I haven't been up yet and not sure I'll be able to but AWESOME! Oh, and blue whales, humpback whales, manta rays, dugongs...

Got out for two dives today and the first site was so amazing that we decided to do a second one in the same spot! And they were like two different dives, both incredible but we saw so much different stuff. Mating octopus, posing octopus, multiple wobbies, tons of turtles, huge estuary cod getting cleaned, part of the site is completely obliterated by a massive school of glassfish and all the predators are in storming the wall, nudibranchs, cool crabs, baby painted crayfish, tons of mating action from the surgeonfish...it was an outstanding day! When we first put the mooring rope on we thought we saw a little pipefish and were already excited. Dropped in and it's not a pipefish but a baby trumpetfish! And then there were two baby slender flutemouths, too! All were hanging out on my camera by the time I got in the water - tried to take some photos but they wanted to be very close the camera and not in front of the lens. Took some shots of the colourful, fatter one as he was hanging out with my camera with my baby Panasonic TS3. Man, what a fun day!!

Water temps still about 27C, viz ranged from 18-25m with tons of floaties (food) almost everywhere on the site.

Oh, and two teeny baby squid were hanging out on my camera rope, along with the flutemouths, when I came back from dive one. Back from dive two and there were five of them!! Too bad I find them really hard to shoot, they're so cute!!