Dive 76 – St Leonards

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 76 28/08/2010 10.47 St Leonards

Wind: 10 knot W.

Tide: 1hr before 0.33 low tide at Geelong

Conditions: A nice day…light winds and a still surface. Suprisingly good vis too.

Bottom Type: Pier pylons over sand base.

Visibilty: 5-7m

Water Temp: 10c

Bottom Time: 59 minutes

Max Depth: 3.5m

Air usage: 85bar/1200psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Finally caught up with Chris Jansen for a dive. It was looking like a good weekend for diving, but around the heads and coast didn’t promise good vis, so we stuck to St Leonards. Luckily it paid off with pretty decent vis nearing a low tide.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: I had the fisheye on and there wasn’t a lot of fisheye subjects, so Chris was the model for most this dive. Love the smile Chris! ; )

Chris working the pylons:

A few general scenes under St Leonards:

Swimming Anemone:

An 11-armed Star precariously climbing some brown algae:

A wrasse just kicking back in the weed;

Hulafish in their usual spots:

On the way back we came across a small cuttlefish who was pretty happy to pose for pics.

Chris taking some shots:

This shots just funny:

Dive 75 – The Grotto

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 75 22/08/2010 13.21 The Grotto

Wind: 10-15 knot N.

Tide: 3.5hr after 1.31 high tide at the Heads (12.50 slack)

Conditions: The last couple of weeks has been blowing ave. 30 knot, and lots of rain, and today was the first light wind. The sky was blue and it was generally a nice day, but still a lot of surface chop. Visibility in the water was atrocious! as expected.

Bottom Type: Rocky reef ledges over sand.

Visibilty: 1-2m

Water Temp: 12c

Bottom Time: 44 minutes

Max Depth: 20.6m

Air usage: 185bar/2500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: There was a break in the windy weather we’ve been having so i thought i’d jump on a boat with dive vic. The two options were Foggy Reef or The Grotto. I’d already dived The Grotto so i jumped on the Foggy Reef boat. On the way out i got told that i’d have to switch boats, because one group was going to 30m and the other was OW training so i had to buddy up with someone of the Grotto boat. So a boat change in the middle of PPB made things a bit more interesting.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: I ended up being buddied up with Cheri (a fellow photographer) and one of the dive vic instructors, so it was good to have a group that would take it nice and slow…especially in 1-2m vis. On descent, we dropped into about 20m straight off. I couldn’t see the bottom until we hit it, and we spooked a baby port jackson shark who took off pretty quick. Not long after working our way along a ledge, our ‘guide’ spotted a Draughtboard shark under a ledge. Excellent spotting in the crap vis! I moved in closer for a shot, and it didn’t like me so close, so i backed off to give it a bit of space. It decided to take off and left the only was it could…in between me and Cheri.

The rest of the dive was fairly uninspiring critter wise. The bad vis made fish spook easily, and the colours weren’t all that vivid in the low light murkiness, so i didn’t take a lot of photos. They probably came out better than i expected though cosidering how milky the water was. Here’s a few from the dive.

Dive 74 – The Springs

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 74 08/08/2010 15.56 The Springs

Wind: 20 knot N.

Tide: 1.5hr after 0.93 low tide at the Heads

Conditions: Nice and sunny conditions.Incoming tide with small breakers on the shoreline, but generally pretty flat. The usual ‘springs’ surge in the water.

Bottom Type: Rocky reef ledges over sand.

Visibilty: 4-5m

Water Temp: 12c

Bottom Time: 63 minutes

Max Depth: 5.6m

Air usage: 85bar/1250psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: It was blowing strong northerlies all day, but generally a nice day. I dived late in the day and thought i’d give The Springs a try for something a bit different.

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: I’m always a little unsure were to go at the Springs and this time i head out to the east of the boatramp, about 200 metres out. I came across a reef area in about 4-5 metres that stood about 3 metres tall, with lots of overhangs and big sand patches. Under the legdes were some gorgonians, horshoe leatherjackets, moonlighters, lots of zebrafish around and the occassional curios blue-throated wrasse. I spent most of my time with a blue throated wrasse and it approached closely and followed me everywhere i went. I thought i got better photo than i did, but i had to pump up the ISO and it was generally too milky and dark to get any nice backgrounds. The surface looked nice when i first got in, but it quickly got dark and i couldn’t frame any fish with the surface in the background.

A seapen under the ledges:

A friendly Blue-throated Wrasse:

A small Horseshoe Leatherjacket:

Yellow-striped Leatherjacket under the ledges:

Dive 73 – Cottage by the Sea

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 73 07/08/2010 12.50 Cottage by the Sea

Wind: 10 knot N.

Tide: 0.5hr before 0.89 low tide at the Heads

Conditions: A high low tide with waves breaking on the shore reef. Conditions were very surgey and visibilty bad.

Bottom Type: Rocky reef ledges over sand.

Visibilty: 3-4m

Water Temp: 12c

Bottom Time: 57 minutes

Max Depth: 8.3m

Air usage: 105bar/1500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: It looked like it should be a good day for cottage but in the water the visibility was crap and the current, strong. Being tucked under the ledges was the only shelter from the bad conditions.

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: An uninspiring dive with very poor visability… i have problems culling photos though, so here’s some shots for the record.

Dive 72 – Portarlington Pier – Night Dive

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 72 29/07/2010 20.50 Portarlington Pier

Wind: 10 knot N.

Tide: 3hr after 1.11 high tide at the Geelong

Conditions: Suprisingly good for onshore winds….protected by the break.

Bottom Type: Muddy bottom with lots of fanworm clusters.

Visibilty: 4-5m

Water Temp: 11c

Bottom Time: 49 minutes

Max Depth: 2.9m

Air usage: 70bar/1000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: The conditions weren’t perfect for night diving but i thought the winds might move around to westerlies if they picked up. I drove down to St Leonards, but Northerlies came out of nowhere and totally blew out St Leonards. Instead of wasting the drive i thought i’d wander past Portarlington on my way home..i wasn’t expecting it to be diveable there since northerlies are straight onshore, but to my surprise there was only gentle norterlies there, and the break wall at the end of the pier made conditions very nice. Nice enough for seagulls to be just sitting on the surface of the water, so i thought i’d join them.

Camera Details: Sigma 17-70mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: This was actually a much better night dive than it is a day dive. During the day you usually have mussell boat filling the water column with sediment and the muddy bottom has a much greater potential for being stirred up. At night the bottom was stable and the water column clean, and all the fanworms were out in full force. This fanworms ‘stem’ was covered in anenome’s and you can see the tiny plankton that were attracted to my light (and would have glowed if i turned my light off).

A closeup of an anemone:

A fanworm doing its thing without the anemones cramping its style.

A nudibranch on one of the pylons feeding:

A seacumber amongst the fanworms:

A seabiscuit making its way across the mud.

I came across two Snake Eels on this dive. I think they are are blind and ‘feel’ their way around the bottom searching for prey. I had one come straight towards seemingly oblivious of my presence. I think it might of been on its way home though down and heading for its hole in the sand. They are awesome burrowers!

There were lots of Globefish around, but very few other species of fish. I was hoping to see a velvetfish or at least some cobblers and stinkfish, but it was very quiet.

Dive 71 – St Leonards – Night Dive

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 71 26/07/2010 20.00 St LeonardsPier

Wind: 5 knot W – NW.

Tide: 2hr before 0.63 low tide at the Geelong

Conditions: Full moon, clear skies, glassy water, absolutely perfect.

Bottom Type: Pier Pylons on sandy bottom scattered with old timber and some misc junk.

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 11c

Bottom Time: 60 minutes

Max Depth: 2.9m

Air usage: 105bar/1500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Conditions were absolutely perfect for a night dive at St Leonards. I’ve been wanting to night dive here ever since seeing the Pale Octopus in daylight hours, so i was hoping it would be a bit more active during the night. I was suprised to see another diver in the water just because it was mid-winter, but looking at the conditions it didn’t really suprise me. It was one of the most magical dives i’ve had. I switched off the torches and dived by moonlight with luminescent plankton swimming midwater all around me. Then dived under the pier to check out what other critters were about.

Camera Details: Sigma 17-70mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: After experiencing the joys of diving by moonlight, i headed under the pier to check if the Pale Octopus was home. He sure was…same spot, different posture. It almost looked like it was wrapping itself in its tenticles to keep warm. Smart occy in 11degree water temps! I actually forgot my hood, and had to resort to wrapping a rash vest around my head..chilly but it better than nothing.

A little Bob-tailed Squid was keeping the occy company.

A nudi hung precariously onto the end of this bit of weed.

I saw a seaquirt-thing ove r in edithburgh that i’d never seen anything like before, funnily enough i saw the same thing at St Leonards on this dive.

A small Surf Crab:

Some type of goby..one i’ve never seen before:

Anenomes will grow on anything!

I saw my first ever snake eel. It moved around persistantly, eventually found its hole and buried itself in the sand.

Just before getting out, a pretty large dumpling squid was resting on the sand and shimmied itself deeper into the sand.

Dive 70 – Blairgowrie Pier

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 70 25/07/2010 15.30 Blairgowrie Pier

Wind: 10knot SE.

Tide: 1.25hr before 0.91 low tide at the Heads

Conditions: Topside weather was near perfect for diving, light winds and not a cloud in the sky. BOM predicted westerlies, but it seemed like it swung around to SE’s which suits Blairgowrie down to a tea.

Bottom Type: Sand base with pier pylons and steel wall.

Visibilty: 6-7m

Water Temp: 12c

Bottom Time: 99 minutes

Max Depth: 6.2m

Air usage: 190bar/2750psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: On a near perfect day i headed over on the Ferry to meet James Peake (JimSwims) for a dive at Blairgowrie to hopefully find some of the mythical Tassled Anglerfish. We met up with Lincoln(Link) as well and headed out to the end of the pier to start our dive. There was some serious pressure put on us by a 5 year old girl, who would not leave with her parents until she saw us get in the water. I obliged, only to hear the dreaded buzz of my leak detector on entry. After heading back to the car to clear out the water, swapping lens and swapping ports, we were on our way again. Once in the water for the second time, there were critters everywhere, and i soon realised i hadn’t put my lens on Autofocus… god damn it! it was just one of those days…great dive though and we saw plenty of “Tangler”, i even managed to get some shots that approximate being in focus.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: After abandoning my sigma 17-70lens due to the leak, i went for the fisheye, and mixed with having no autofocus, i couldn’t get any shots of all the cool macro subjects we saw..ring-backed pipefish, pygmy squid, blue-ringed and pale octopus, nudi’s, scorpionfish and lots of others. My focus was fixed, so it was just shoot, alter my distance and hope…i didn’t nail the focus of any shots, so most of these are horribley oversharpened…so excuse the noise! A noisey tassled angler shot is better than no tangler shot!

OK..lets play spot the anglerfish (Tip: its towards the middle…look for the pink lips, and dont be distracted by the seastar!)

Find it? Here’s a shot in a less cryptic pose:

Here’s a different one (we saw..um..7 all up i think)..nestled in some sponge:

I got a bit to close at one stage, and it took off further up the pylon.

A silohette shot:

Jim goes in for a closer look (er..pose):

There were other critters around to photograph..like this mosiac leatherjacket:

And a bit of Spider crab action Jim couldn’t get enough of:

But then back to the Tassled Anglers.

Jim finds a Blue-ringed Occy on the wall to photograph:

Dive 69 – Black Point, Pt Lowly

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 69 18/07/2010 12.05 Whyalla – Black Point

Wind: ??? Westerly aspect

Tide: 1.5hr after 2.43 high tide at Whyalla

Conditions: Light drizzle and reasonable winds from the west. A bit of surface chop.

Bottom Type: Rocky Shoreline with flattened rock covered with green algae, and scatter sponge life. Much more diverse marine life than at the Fenceline

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: 12c

Bottom Time: 55 minutes

Max Depth: 8.9m

Air usage: 100bar/1500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: This was my last dive of the trip, and i got another tank off steve, who also lent me, not one pair of fins….but three!.. all free of charge! I’ve gotta say the locals looked after me well. I was also chatting to Tony Bramley at the fenceline site and he was also very helpful with advice on dive sites and the history of area. Also the one responsible for the protection of the area, so the googlenet tells me. Love your work tony!

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: This was a really interesting dive. Looking over the dive site i expected a fairly shallow, rocky shore dive. However it dropped of into about 10m and probably a lot deeper further out. It didn’t have the concentration of cuttlefish that the Fenceline had but the terrain was much more varied, and although it was dominated by green algea, it had areas of sponge and ascidian, which seemed to make it better for nudi’s. I saw three nudibranch species, all rather large, without particularly looking for them. So i’d imagine it would be a good area to focus on nudibranchs. Here’s two species i photographed:

I’m not sure if these are cuttlefish eggs or not. Port Jackson Shark eggs come to mind, but i have no factual basis for this. I certainly didn’t see port jacko sharks!

In around 4 metres, the cuttlefish became more prominent. They were even lining up for pats! ;) (I dont encourage this by the way, it was just a photography stunt, and they weren’t alarmed by my attempts to touch them.

Dive 68 – Point Lowly Fenceline

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 68 18/07/2010 10.05 Whyalla – Point Lowly

Wind: ??? Westerly aspect

Tide: 0.5hr before 2.43 high tide at Whyalla

Conditions: Still overcast, a little bit of rain…seas pretty stable though.

Bottom Type: Rocky Shoreline with flattened rock covered with green algae past the low tide line.

Visibilty: 4-5m

Water Temp: 12c

Bottom Time: 39 minutes

Max Depth: 3.9m

Air usage: 50bar/700psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: I had a few camera issues with my previous dive, so i got out to sort them out and then straight back in.

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report:

Dive 67 – Point Lowly Fenceline

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 67 18/07/2010 09.05 Whyalla – Point Lowly

Wind: ??? Westerly aspect

Tide: 1.5hr before 2.43 high tide at Whyalla

Conditions: Windy and overcast..a few patches of sunlight but not a lot

Bottom Type: Rocky Shoreline with flattened rock covered with green algae past the low tide line.

Visibilty: 4-5m

Water Temp: 12c

Bottom Time: 30 minutes

Max Depth: 3.9m

Air usage: 35bar/500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Got up nice and early (8am – thats pretty good for me ;) ) and searched for a fin a lost last night. I dont know how i lost it…i was talking cuttle shots (obviously) in near to no light and found myself without a fin. I searched for it on the night, but it was just too dark. I didn’t hold much hope in finding it..it was probably 10km away by now so gave up pretty quickly and (after seeing if any of the other visiting divers had any spares) had to just give it a go with one. It worked ok just crossing my legs, and i wasn’t covering much ground so it really didn’t matter, but it was very annoying and did affect my control underwater. After i finsihed this dive, a very nice local from Whyalla gave me his wives old fins..great bloke! Thanks a million if you ever stumble onto this blog!

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: Some shots from a short, finless dive:

There’s nice cuttlefish in this shot.

Getting a bit frisky.

There must have been a bit of a predator in the area, or some domestic dispute going on, as the water was full of ink at one stage.

Dive 66 – Point Lowly Fenceline

By pfuller

Aug

Dive Number: 66 17/07/2010 17.10 Whyalla – Point Lowly

Wind: ??? Westerly aspect

Tide: 1hr after 1.15 low tide at Whyalla

Conditions: A very ordinary day, raining and overcast and the sea wasn’t exactly calm with slightly onshore winds.

Bottom Type: Rocky Shoreline with flattened rock covered with green algae past the low tide line.

Visibilty: 4-5m

Water Temp: 13c

Bottom Time: 63 minutes

Max Depth: 3.3m

Air usage: 70bar/1000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: I didn’t think we’d make it up to Whyalla for a dive after driving up from Edithburgh during the day, but things just fell into place. I needed to get hold of a tank, and called Steve from Whyalla dive adventures. As fate had it he was heading up Pt Lowly Rd as we where heading down it. So we managed to catch him at the turnoff and pick up a tank, all for the bargain price of $15! Some LDS’s charge nearly that for airfills, let alone hiring a tank in a remote area. Champion Steve! Anyway, we made it down to the fenceline right on sunset and got in for a quick dive.

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: I was suprised on arriving the number of cars around, some divers, some tourists. Either way it was good to see that this site is attracting attention which can only lead to the further protection of the area. I didn’t muck around and got into the water ASAP. Wow…cuttlefish everywhere! The stories are true. You dont need to dive this site, since you’ll be able to see 10+ cuttlefish in one view as soon as you enter the water. The cuttlefish pay little attention to divers, and you can see them engaging in natural activity.

One of the most fascinating behaviours i observed, were young cuttlefish playing with a cuttlefish bone. One cuttlefish had a bone in its mouth/tenticles/arms and 2 or 3 others were chasing him. If the cuttlefish released it, the natural bouyancy of the bone meant it would rocket to the surface with all the cuttlefish in quick pursuit. One of the cuttlefish would grab the bone from the surface and the chase would be on again. I watched this happen about 2 or 3 times, and it brought up images of seeing the squid taking the bait from the fisherman at Wool Bay. (See dive log 62). I’m thinking that this ‘play’ that the young cuttlefish engage in, prepares them for hunting in adulthood. All with the assistance of the bones of thier predecessors..perhaps even their own parents who came to these shores to breed, give birth to them, and then die off. Its possibly the most fascinating behaviour i’ve seen in the animal world, and is packed full of symbolism if you want to analyse it. Anyway, here’s some pics of the Cuttlefish playing with the cuttlefish bone.