Dive 346 – St Leonards – 1.5 Avenue Reef, St Leonards

By pfuller

Aug

26

Dive Number: 346 26/08/12 14.31, 1.5 Ave Reef St Leonards

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 4m

Water Temp: 10.4c

Bottom Time: 56minutes

Max Depth: 2.8m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Shit weather again, so i thought i’d try a new spot near st leonards…just north of the pier. I saw a very tiny cryptic fish that i got very excited about. I think its just a baby stinkfish though…not all the exciting. Some hydriods out there, and a seemingly abundant over winter, featherstar floated by.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobe

Photos:





Dive 345 – Williamstown Beach

By pfuller

Aug

25

Dive Number: 345 25/08/12 15.31, Horse Beach – 13th Beach

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 3m

Water Temp: 10.4

Bottom Time: 65minutes

Max Depth: 4.7m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: It was miserable day…howling north westerlies, with a strong wind chill factor. But every day is a good day for diving..you just have to find the right spot. I went down to St Leonards, but there were waves against the shoreline causing peasoup conditions, so i thought it was good opportunity to work the north west corner of Port Phillip Bay and headed up to Williamstown. The BSAC crew were there, and i headed out with Hui and found a few nudi’s in the bleak waters off Williamstown Beach.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobe

Photos:







Dive 344 – 13th Beach – Horse Beach 40W

By pfuller

Aug

23

Dive Number: 344 23/08/12 10.58, Horse Beach – 13th Beach

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 12.0c

Bottom Time: 86minutes

Max Depth: 6.6m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: I’d dived this area once before and it was OK so i thought i’d try a new section. Not alot out deep, but in shallow was some very colorful kelp garden areas. One section had a big cloud of weed swirling in an eddy created by the swell over the reef..it was a bit entrancing. On the way in i tried shooting some waves as they passed over.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobe

Photos:


















Dive 343 – Blairgowrie Pier

By pfuller

Aug

19

Dive Number: 343 19/08/12 ??.??, Blairgowrie Pier

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 10.8c

Bottom Time: 86minutes

Max Depth: 5.0m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:

Camera Details: Canon 60mm , SS200 Strobe

Photos: I’ve been reading up on the muck dive sites of south east asia, and its been inspiring me to reconsider all port phillip bay’s muck sites. Blairgowrie is becoming renowned as a worldclass muck dive, and on a good day you can really see why. Todays dive produced a couple of tassled anglers, a velvet fish, pygmy squid, and the usual handful of nudi species. A big smooth ray was also patrolling the area, When you think of all the critters that can be seen here that are on many divers wish-list, it really deserves it reputation.
















Dive 342 – Portarlington Pier

By pfuller

Aug

12

Dive Number: 342 12/08/12 ??.??, Portarlington Pier

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 6m

Water Temp: 11.2c

Bottom Time:68minutes

Max Depth: 3.4m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:

Camera Details: Canon 60mm , SS200 Strobe

Photos: I had a great dive at Portarlington Pier yesterday i thought i’d dive it again. A nice suite of nudi’s and flatworms around. Plus Pygmy Squid and Ring Pipefish.













Dive 341 – Portarlington Pier

By pfuller

Aug

11

Dive Number: 341 11/08/12 ??.??, Portarlington Pier

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 6m

Water Temp: 10.4c

Bottom Time: 67minutes

Max Depth: 3.5m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Lewis in his Shore dives of Victoria book states that Portarlington Pier was the best pier dives in Port Phillip Bay. I’ve always thought he was off his head, but i’m starting to realise where he is coming from. Before Blairgowrie Pier came along (which is a relatively new construction and may not have existed at the time of his publication), portarlington pier is definently muck central..so if muck critters are your thing, this dive would go near the top of your list. The species niche diversity is very similar to Blairgowrie. It always has a good array of nudi’s; Its one of the only place other than blairgowrie that i regularly see Ringed Pipefish; and is a great spot of for seahorses, stinkfish and at night a dead cert for snake eel. Its one of those spots that you never know what you’ll see…an aspect that i dislike about St leonards which seems to be failry predictable(as predictable as the ocean can be).

On this dive, i found a..”thing” that intrigued me. The patterning on it looks like a fabric print, but it is definently organic…even a fractal generator couldn’t come up with such random dimensions in the patterning of the stars/flowers on the skin. The centre of these stars/flowers was raised(not obvious in the photos) like some type of gland. My best guess is this is a bit of a sponge or ascidian, but i certainly haven’t seen anything like this before. Anyone got any ideas??

Camera Details: Canon 60mm , SS200 Strobe

Photos:













Dive 340 – St Leonards Reef

By pfuller

Aug

4

Dive Number: 340 04/08/12 13.11, St Leonards Reef (South)

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 6m

Water Temp: 10.8c

Bottom Time: 45minutes

Max Depth: 5.0m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: A second dive on St Leonards Reef. Hyeonji Spotted a large Maori Octopus doing its best to camoflage into the reef. One of the biggest suprises was a cowfish…the first i’ve ever seen around these parts. Another good cirtter was a massive ringed pipefish….almost the size of a snake-eel. Great dive despite the current and ordinary vis.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:










Dive 339 – St Leonards Reef

By pfuller

Aug

4

Dive Number: 339 04/08/12 10.55, St Leonards Reef (North)

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 6m

Water Temp: 10.4c

Bottom Time: 53minutes

Max Depth: 4.0m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: This is a wonderful reef for critters. On decent i spotted an aggregation of about 20 eleven-armed starfish. These critters aren’t the most pleasing to the eye starfish in the world, but there was something special about the way they were grouped out here. They were scavenging like you usually see groups of these stars, so i suspect this was a breeding event. A Lions Made Jelly then sailed past in the current…always a good subject, but difficult in the reasonably strong current and shallows waters.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:













Dive 338 – Eastern View

By pfuller

Aug

2

Dive Number: 338 02/08/12 14.23, Eastern View

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Surgey with lots of sand in the water

Visibilty: 6m

Water Temp: 12.0c

Bottom Time: 55minutes

Max Depth: 5.0m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: We decided the second dive would be on the unusual Eastern View reef..a diagonal prominatory out into the middle of an ebayment. The vis was quite bad in the shallows and the surf stirs up the sand in the area. Further out though the scattered boulder reef turns into amazing crayweed forest that controls a bit of the surge movement..though not much. Its a wild feeling dive out here..very sharky, but exhilarating!

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:






Dive 337 – Sunnymeade Beach

By pfuller

Aug

2

Dive Number: 337 02/08/12 11.20, Sunnymeade Beach – Aireys Inlet

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Great day with low swell on the coast

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 12.0c

Bottom Time: 76minutes

Max Depth: 10.6m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: It was one of those low swell days that was ideal for diving along the Surfcoast. Original plans was to dive Pt Roadknight Back Beach, but the swell was still too high for this area. We decided on Sunnymeade Beach ear Airey’s Inlet and made the long arduous walk down the stairs with full gear. We walked towards the Eagle’s nest marine park, but it was just too far with full gear and slippery rocks, so we entered before the first point. The area was fairly shallow reef for most of the way out in about 6-7m. The biggest highlight here was a very unexpected Weedy Seadragon. the first record in this area for the species as far as i’m aware. I swum out the back further and out to the east. It was nothing but a sandy flat with little reef in abot 10-11m. This continued for a good 20minutes of swimming, until i reached some great little bommies in about 6-8m. This area was right in the middle of the embayment and was probably the best reef on the dive. The really tough entry and exit is the limiting factor to this area, otherwise i’d love to explore it more.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos: