Aussie Diving 28th Nov - 4th Dec

[Sas]

Viz was pretty poor temp was 17 to 18. I was in my sharkskin and found it a bit cold by the second dive. I seem to be ok at 17 but after an hour or so it gets too cold. When we came back and got into a thermo cline of 18 it felt wonderful. It was raining a bit and the wind was blowing made the surface interval a bit cool.
Well worth it tho. I really wanted to try to find the angler fish and the pygmy piphorses on the eastern side.

It was pretty high tide with a few moderate to largish sets coming in. No problem as long as you timed it right. It was washing over the ledge on the eastern side so we wound up climbing down the rock wall and swimming out and back on the eastern side to find the angler fish. There are some pygmy pipehorse on the eastern side too but I was too cold to stay out there searching too long. It took us a while to find the angler and the temp out there was mostly around 17 but Denis said his computer was reading 16.

THANK YOU NICK for the directions :yelclap: You are a LEGEND:worship:

:shocked2: Nice find! Such odd looking critters!

Nice to see your white seahorse. It seems a bit more speckled than ours. How big was it? PADI should offer a course on how to train the wildlife how to pose Hmmm would the fish get a P card for Posing??

Hmm I think about 5cm, was very tiny. I never got a decent shot as the camera was not on macro and I did not know how to set it. After a bit I got Paul to work out I needed macro settings so he switched it but the horse had hidden itself better in the weed *sigh* Shy little thing! I like your PADI course idea I seem to get a lot of shots of fish tails... except for Sas, he knows how to pose!!!

 

[bowlofpetunias]

yep that Sas Grouper is a Poser all right Hard to get him all in the shot he stays so close hmmm maybe we should give Sas an award for being a good dive buddy He is seldom farther than arm's reach away:blinking:
Our white seahorse is quite large. larger than 100 mils. That is Fish's estimate but he says he didn't take a really close look. Being a draftsman he's better at estimating size than I am. I would say she (I didn't see a pouch) was as long as my hand and tail larger around than my thumb Not sure which description is easier for you to visualize. These are definitely large seahorses.

 

[Sas]

yep that Sas Grouper is a Poser all right Hard to get him all in the shot he stays so close hmmm maybe we should give Sas an award for being a good dive buddy He is seldom farther than arm's reach away:blinking:

Maybe attach a pony or something to him and that way you have an extra buddy to help out if things go pear shaped

I had two *awesome* dives today. I dived Portsea Pier for about 90mins and then Blairgowrie Pier for 100mins, so they are fairly long shore dives for me I thought being in my wetsuit I would freeze but I was ok until the last bit of the last dive. I spent a lot of it watching a school of salmon and then a nudibranch crawl around so got a bit chilly not moving much. I went to pick up my drysuit but the shop owner said 'I am really sorry but conditions were great so I went out for a dive instead of fixing it' I told him it was no stress as I would do the same I think I can leave it until next winter though as it is now 16-17C consistently. I was in a 7mm semidry, I have NO idea petunia, how you manage in a sharkskin!!!

Anyway, I saw about ten different types of nudis, big school of salmon, lots of stingrays, a heap of weedies including one with eggs, octopus, about 30 pleurobranchs, school of sweep, lots of baby leatherjackets, seahorse, and lots of toadies and puffers! :shocked2: I had no camera though which is a pity as the viz was about 8-15m (15 at Portsea and 8m at Blairgowrie) so very good!

Apparently there were two wobbies and seal pups at Rye Pier but I missed out! Too tired for a third shore dive today to check it out

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Sounds like a great dive. Glad you enjoyed it but sorry you don't have pics to share:depressed:

Surely you jest.... couldn't do a third dive with that much on offer:shocked2: Amazing! What is the world coming to?

 

[Aardvark]

Went for a dive at "Two Poles" out of Terrigal yesterday. We were hoping for sun and flat seas and expecting rubbish vis. and that's exactly what we got. Max vis. was probably 4m so I left the camera on the boat - enough to do to keep my buddies in sight. Warm enough at 18 degrees and a lovely bit of navigation from my buddy brought us right back to the pick. No weedys but plenty of life among the sponges and other ground clutter, plus spotted grouper, small schools of sweep and bigeyes and a few shells prowling the top of the reef. There was a outrigger regatta on in The Haven which made parking interesting, I had to park 200m from shore at 7:00am... not happy.

Sounds like you got some good dives in, hoping the weather holds for a few more days so I can get a decent night dive in later his week.

 

[Sas]

Surely you jest.... couldn't do a third dive with that much on offer:shocked2: Amazing! What is the world coming to?

I was just TOO cold. :depressed: It was quite warm and sunny by the time I got out but I had to put on a hoodie and an overcoat, people were giving me odd looks

Aardvark, what do you mean about shells prowling around? How do the shells move around? Parking is becoming tough at dive sites here too. I showed up at 9am and the park was nearly full. Will get worse over summer :depressed: Hope you get out for a night dive! I plan to do the same tomorrow after work , as Paul is back, but he has a cold so not 100% sure if we'll dive.

 

[Aardvark]

Aardvark, what do you mean about shells prowling around? How do the shells move around?

"Shells" is a bit lazy. One looked like a trochid of some sort and the other a triton both had their bodies exposed, they weren't moving fast but they were moving. Given the large number of carnivorous gastropods I like to think of them "prowling". I'm sure someone will tell me I'm wrong but that's what they looked like.

There's a great scene in the "Blue Planet" series with a low speed sea slug chase that always amuses me. "Nature, red in tooth and claw", even if it's very small and very slow.

 

[Sas]

Oic. I thought you were meaning something like that

Low speed slug chase. I have been meaning to watch Blue Planet sometime, I will keep an eye out.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I saw a docco on cone shells hunting.... had a chase scene that had to be seen to be believed time lapsed and still took forever yes I agree Ardvark.... they do look like they are prowling... and they can move fairly quickly.... well compared to their prey

 

[Sas]

Well I got out for a lovely night dive tonight Me and a guy from my local dive club met up at Mornington Pier and got about 70mins in. Viz was ok at about 5m or so, started off at dusk so it was fun to see the light change over the dive. Got to play with a cuttlefish for a bit, I would turn my light away and it would swim right up to my face and open its eye flap Haven't been that close to one before. Saw a large school of mullet (I think they were mullet anyway), lots of puffers, seahorse and a few stingrays. But no octopuses! :depressed: Mornington you usually pretty much always see an occy but no luck tonight.

Navigation went very well, as when we did the last leg you have to move away from the pier and we ended up ascending directly next to the ladder to get out on the wharf I am getting better I think at last!