Snorkel at Tweed Heads Seaway

By pfuller

Sep

13/09/2010 12.45 Tweed Heads Seaway

Wind: ????

Tide: 2.19 high tide at Tweed Heads

Conditions: Light winds but overcast and a touches of rain.

Bottom Type: Rock wall breakwater with little growth

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 19c

Snorkel Time: 60minutes

Details: On the way back from Byron the plan was to get a sneaky dive in before i flew out at 7pm that night. I still had 7 hr desat time on my computer from the diving the day before, so decided not to risk diving and just snorkelled instead. I hired a weight belt from Kirra Dive just up the road..they charged me $15…big thumbs down to Kirra dive for that! I ended up running into some crew i met on the Cod Hole dive in Byron who said they had a spare belt…oh well. Ended up just snorkelling along the wall trying to photogrpah some of the smaller fish around. I hoped for some nudi’s but despite seeing a couple of egg spirals didn’t spot any. Best find for the day was a fully inflated Soccer ball in near mint position. Not the kid of thing you expect to find 1 metre underwater! It somehow got jammed into the rocks..probably from a fierce incoming tide..good find though..looks like its in the vicinity of $200! My nephew scored it to kick around.

Camera Details: Canon 100mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report:

Snorkel at Pt Lonsdale

By pfuller

Sep

30/08/2010 8.30 Point Lonsdale

Wind: ????

Tide: 0.52 low tide at the Heads

Conditions: The water clarity was much better today, still a bit dirty though. Generally a fine morning.

Bottom Type: Rockpools

Bottom Time: 60 minutes

Details: Good numbers again this morning. Mabe 10+ species and flatworm.

Camera Details: Canon 100mm , single SS200 strobe.

Dive Report:

Chromodoris alternata:

Doto Sp???

Elysia furvacauda:

Elysia sp:

Eubranchus sp:

Facelina sp:

Flatworm (unknown):

An Isopod:

Trinchesia sp???

Dive 77: Steeles Rocks

By pfuller

Sep

Dive Number: 77 29/08/2010 15.43 Steeles Rocks

Wind: 10 knot NW.

Tide: 0.5hr before 1.00 high tide at Geelong

Conditions: Light variable winds all day. The wind turned onshore but didn’t blow out the area. Vis was pretty good.

Bottom Type: Barrens type, scattered rocks and reef with sporadic patches of brown algae.

Visibilty: 6-7m

Water Temp: 11c

Bottom Time: 58 minutes

Max Depth: 3.7m

Air usage: 90bar/1300psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:

Camera Details: Canon 100mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: Nearly straight after decent Chris spotted a Port Jacko shark, which apparently did a couple of laps of us. I only saw it on our final pass, and didn’t have my settings set for a big subject. I got the focus lock perfect too, but the pic came out nearly black. Here’s a record shot with the levels pumped up.

A couple of smooth rays around. Here’s an eye shot:

A texture shot of stone coral:

A fanworm:

Chris spotted a cool little pygmy squid:

Snorkel at Pt Lonsdale

By pfuller

Sep

29/08/2010 9.00 Point Lonsdale

Wind: ??????

Tide: 0.49 low tide at the Heads

Conditions: The water clarity was atrocious. The sediments were very dilluted in the water making it very opaque. The worst i’ve seen it in the rockpools.

Bottom Type: Rockpools

Bottom Time: 60 minutes

Details: Despite the poor water clarity, the diversity and numbers of nudi’s were fantastic. I saw at least 15 species and their were multiples of many species. Also saw a strange polyceate worm.

Camera Details: Canon 100mm , single SS200 strobe.

Dive Report: The best snorkel i’ve done at the rockpools in the last 6 months. The weed has recovered and lost of nudi’s feasting on the brown algae. Very grooty water though.

Doto sp.: