Wednesday 15th July – BHP Jetty Night Dive
It was just the two of us today on the BHP Jetty Night Dive, but what the rest of you missed was probably the best visibility we have had for the past couple of months. The conditions were pretty close to perfect with a light current running north to south and virtually no swell.
With a maximum depth of around 8.3m we were down for 67 minutes which at 15 deg C did start to get a bit cold, but we were rewarded by some great things to see. No Great Whites or Manta rays that we had been promised, but the number of Seahorses and colourful Nudibranch were fantastic.
Having experimented with video last week, I took a few more snippets today along with a lot of photos so I will share a few:
Firstly, for those of you who haven’t been on a night dive, this is Aaron ahead of me:
The legs of the Jetty are covered in soft corals, feather anemone and there were a lot of starfish and these Nudibranch crawling around:
The Seahorses were out in force:
Including this beautiful orange seahorse!
Shortly before the turn, Aaron spotted a Cuttlefish hiding under some rocks:
And then further on we met another one swimming in the open water:
And then a small Stingray next to a shoal of juvenile Catfish.
On the way up to the beach, we stayed under and scanned the sand for other interesting life. As always there where quite a number of Blue Swimmer Crabs and small fish, and then we came across this Sand Eel trying to hide from our lights.
And this which has now been identified as a Horrowed Sole.
Next week, the Perth Scuba Manta Club have pencilled in a dive on the coast North of the river, but that will be weather dependant. The wind and swell are dropping after the weekend, so fingers crossed…
