BHP Jetty Night Dive

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:

Camoflague Starfish - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Camouflage Starfish – BHP Jetty Night Dive
Feather Anemone - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Feather Anemone – BHP Jetty Night Dive
Purple Spotted Orange Nudibranch - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Purple Spotted Orange Nudibranch – BHP Jetty Night Dive

The Seahorses were out in force:

Seahorse Family - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Seahorse Family – BHP Jetty Night Dive
Seahorse Pair - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Seahorse Pair – BHP Jetty Night Dive

Including this beautiful orange seahorse!

Shortly before the turn, Aaron spotted a Cuttlefish hiding under some rocks:

Purple Cuttlefish - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Purple Cuttlefish – BHP Jetty Night Dive
Purple Cuttlefish - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Purple Cuttlefish

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.

Stingray - BHP Jetty Night Dive
Stingray

 

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…

Ammo Jetty Night Dive

Wednesday 1st July – Ammo Jetty Night Dive

Not letting a little bit of rain put us off, we met in the car park to gear up for a night dive at Ammo Jetty.

Ammo Jetty Map
Ammo Jetty Map

We had a varied crew.  A couple of seasoned locals, two fairly new divers and three recently qualified PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors.

Budding Participants
Budding Participants

I haven’t been out on a night dive for a long lime and I soon remembered how much I do love it.  The underwater world comes alive at night and it gives you a completely different perspective on the dive site.  Sandy bottoms that in the day are empty, in the night are peppered with crabs and shrimps.  In your torch, the jellyfish shimmer and cuttlefish swim past your mask at close quarter.

Blue Swimmer Crab
Blue Swimmer Crab
Blue Swimmer Crabs defending their patch
Blue Swimmer Crabs defending their patch
Eyes in the sand
Eyes in the sand

We also saw quite a few other things including quite a large Stingray that had been hooked by one of the fishermen on the jetty overhead.

Stingray hooked up to line
Stingray hooked up to line

My buddy was kind enough to liberate it and it didn’t hang around after that.  The other things we saw were Frog fish, lots of Starfish, a small Port Jackson Shark and a Rock Fish hiding in the soft corals on one of the pylons.

Frog Fish
Frog Fish

 

Starfish
Starfish

 

Port Jackson Shark
Port Jackson Shark

 

Camouflaged Rock Fish
Camouflaged Rock Fish

I can’t wait to go out again next week.  The current plan is to go out from South Mole (Freemantle)…