Aardvark
Contributor
Well me, chilled + a new buddy we met through our dive club (well I actually did my OW course in Feb with him so it was nice to see some one else still diving from my class! ) just went and did an AWESOME dive at Mornington Pier. It made up for Sunday's difficult dive for sure! Anyway, things weren't looking so good with strong winds and thunderstorms predicted but we made the trip anyway. Well water was very flat, no surge and viz was about 5m
We saw a *giant* Maori octopus, watched it hunt for things for about 20mins, blue ring, and also a sand octopus. When we first descended the viz was awful (it is very silty near the start of the pier), and we almost ended up on top of a giant stingray. Was about 3m big. Anyway it was flopping around stirring up all the sand so it was a tad disturbing being in no viz with a giant stingray around! Saw lots of sea horses, nudi, calamari, Old Wives, a puffer fish with one eye swimming very oddly, and a few other critters. Chilled says he will post pictures later
Just as we finished packing up all the gear it started pouring and lightening started. So we timed it very well
Also... I am back in my wetsuit :shocked2: Was a bit chilly at the start of the dive but I got used to it and was fairly toasty by the end
Sounds like a great dive. I love octopus, I haven't seen any Maori octopus or Blue Ring but plenty of the medium sized varity. They just seem so graceful.
Four of us went for a night dive last night. I won't say it was a bad dive. Vis was about 2m (I could make out my fins, sort of). I got to practice solo cramp removal on the surface in the swell (not fun) and the others got to practice lost buddy procedure (me) as my buddy hadn't seen me signalling that I was going up (somebody had their light in my face when I thumbed it!)
Anyway... a moray, lots of cuttlefish, lots of small fish, some old wives, small rays and catfish. The others spotted a blind shark before they realised I was no longer with them
I took a couple of photos that just showed up as an amazing pattern of backscatter and nothing else.