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.
