Aussie diving - April week 5 (26th - 1st May)

[almitywife]

well despite being a long weekend we only got the one dive into, today at Shelley Beach - we went out specifically to find the baby sharks and bingo!!!

these duskys are babys and they hang around Fairy Bower, they also known as black whaler, bronze whaler, and dusky whaler sharks.

hopefully hubby got a pic or 2 as viz was a very milky 5 to 7mtrs (15 to 20ft) but we also saw a brooding male cuttle fish about 1mtr/3ft long and a male wobbegong about 2mtrs/6ft doing a lousy job trying to hid under a ledge

finally got some pics from hubby for our dive 2 weeks ago at Bare Island!

pygmie pipehorse, tiny tiny-they head & body is about the size of your pinky finger nail

very tricky upside down pipefish, as you can see, this critter is hidden under a very small ledge at the sand line

and a couple of nudies

 

[Eau_Girl]

WOW!!

Thanks for sharing the photos from your Bare Island trip!

Can I come dive with you guys the next time I'm in the neighborhood?

 

[Sas]

Aw nice pics almitywife I love the little pygmy seahorses!

I dived Sat + today. Yesterday I did a drift specialty course as part of my AOW and the first dive went pretty well. We were diving in a place called 'Sponge Garden Drift' in Port Phillip Bay and conditions were pretty good for the Bay at the moment - 8m vis and the water was calm. I saw a lot of sponges (big surprise there ;p) and a banjo shark. We'd all done drifts before so it went smoothly-mostly. I was trying out a new BC (first time with a back inflate) and at one point I couldn't vent it properly so I almost pulled everyone up to the surface - my buddy noticed quickly though and dragged me back down.

The second dive of the day was also supposed to be a drift but there wasn't much of a current, just strong surge - so we kind of drifted but just back and forth a lot Very rough on the surface too. It was in Point Nepean Marine Park and we saw some zebra fish and a lot of abalone mainly. My instructor was dragging the line around a lot to simulate a current actually, which was hilarious. He said he was pretty knackered afterwards So yea, it was a fun day and I met a new buddy who was really great to dive with. We have some more dives planned to the Eliza Ramsden wreck and some shore dives in the next few weeks.

Today I did three shore dives near the Williamstown Life Saving Club with a DM from the club I am in and I was buddied up with the guy I did the drift dives with, which was cool! It is fairly shallow so we dived to 3-4m and did some long dives so I am still currently warming up! I think the dive didn't make me so cold as much as the fact that there were no toilets so I had to take off my wetsuit and run into the ocean to pee! Twice. It is about 16C atm so wasn't pleasant. Anyway, the first and third dives were really awesome though I ended up with a big sea urchin spike in my foot Second dive was a short one but I did not enjoy it much as again I was having trouble with my BC venting - it was loaned to me to try out to see if I liked a backinflate BC and I would have but it was much too big for me so I struggled a bit.

Anyway, we saw a bunch of pretty nudibranches, some pufferfish (my personal favourite of the ocean ), decorated crab, lots of giant starfish, shrimp, giant jellyfish, and zebra fish. We removed dozens of Northern Pacific Seastars too. My buddy had them stuck in between the straps of his BC and various places on his person to free up his hands so it was quite amusing to see him swim around covered in starfish. Oh, and I had bought an SMB yesterday too so I practiced sending it up with no hassles - but I guess at 3m it is a lot easier than at a much deeper depth. Viz was about 5m and fairly milky but yea, it was one of my favourite days diving so far

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Almity .. absolutely great pics ... congrats to theo

We dived Bare Island on saturday (yes we are creatures of habit) could only find one pygmy pipehorse, but we found where the eastern blue devil hides.

We also found a small octopus that buried itself in the sand with only it's eyes showing ... first time we have ever seen one do that.

and we wonder why people keep asking us why we dive here so often ... over the years we have found angler fish, velvet fish, golden crested weed fish, Johnsons weed fish, pleurobranch with eggs, mating PJ's, red indian fish, upside down pipe fish and now the pygmy pipe horses and the eastern blue devil ... what lucky people we are to have such a place to dive

 

[almitywife]

EAU Girl.... sounds like you got the aussie blues bad...... and yes, next time your down here im sure we can do something

Almity .. ,...but we found where the eastern blue devil hides........

:11: both hubby and i say WHERE... expect email tomorrow

........ and we wonder why people keep asking us why we dive here so often .. ... what lucky people we are to have such a place to dive

i agree!!!

i hadnt dived bare island for a long time and then about 2yrs ago we revisted it every week we come out with something GREAT!

 

[alcina]

Almity - great shots! Great to hear you guys are getting out diving No diving for me as I had to work but dive reports today (Sunday) from Ningaloo are:

West Side - blue warm water; swell is dropping but still a good surge
- hammerhead at one of the sites plus a big potato cod that usually isn't seen on this site
- lots of schools, nice turtles and active reef sharks
- great whale sharks today again

Lighthouse Bay - dirty and surgy due to the swell. Swell is due to drop overnight so should be fabulous again on Tuesday

Muiron Islands - varying from too dirty to dive to quite nice with tons of action on other sites.

I won't get out tomorrow, but I have some hopes of a real dive on Tuesday - if I can get out of the office!

 

[almitywife]

Saspotato, make sure you get the foot checked out... hubby didnt know he had a spike in his foot and the skin grew over and about 3 weeks later he started having problems. the darn thing was impaled into him!!!

your advance sounds great and yes to the practising on the smb... i feel stupid doing it sometimes but it can be a fun thing to do too

 

[Sas]

Yea I pulled the spike straight out... the wound looks clear now, like nothing is stuck in there. I have to go to the doctors in a few days though so I will get her to check it out just in case.

Hehe, yea the SMB practising was fun! I thought it would be quite hard as I am clumsy, but my spool worked out fine and I didn't get tangled Will try it a bit deeper next week.

Also, I just noticed your pics are PIPEhorses! Not seahorses This is probably a stupid question but what is the difference between the two? The pictures look like seahorses so are they similar?

 

[almitywife]

i know!!! when i first saw them i was confused so i had to ask the seahorse guru (The Underwater Photo Gallery - Dave Harasti) the same thing

it is a pygmie PIPEhorse but it looks very much like a seahorse

Sydney's Pygmy Pipehorse, Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri
Sydney's Pygmy Pipehorse resembles a seahorse. It has a prehensile tail and a large head with a tall frontal ridge. Like a seahorse, the head is held at an angle to the body. The head of Sydney's Pygmy Pipehorse, however, is positioned at a smaller angle to the longitudinal axis of the body (about 25%) than that of seahorses and more than that of most pipefishes.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Don't wait too long to have the wound checked. It took the doctor 3 times to get mine cleaned out. It kept healing over but there were tiny bits that were in very deep pockets.