Some SODS do Castle Rock and Hahei
Myself and a few SODS (Southern Ocean Diving Society-a local club that I was a co creator of. We are a non-profit club whose aim is to get people diving and help with training and up skilling through mentoring and at-cost dive training) went for a dive on Friday at Castle Rock off the Coromandal Coast.
We had fantastic viz at the rock and were treated to some pretty cool fish life.
I have only recently got a camera so these are mainly point and shoot but should give you an idea of how cool our dives were.
To give you an idea of the dive site here is a map. Notice how it rises straight out of 70 metres on the eastern side and 55 on the western. Because of this it gets nice clear blue water.
From a distance of around 7.5 kilometres
Up close
Check out the clear blue water
First sight upon descending are masses of schooling demoiselle
With Patrolling Kingfish below. (I had to zoom in on these so they are not that clear)
On the way down we came across this Sandaggers Wrasse. The Sandaggers are cool fish that follow you around, now everyone thinks they are just being friendly but in fact the cunning little fellows are escorting you out of their territory so you don’t steal one of their harem of female Sandaggers.
Seen a pretty cool Finger Sponge at around 36 metres…check out the light from above that shows how good the viz was.
We stayed at 36 metres for around 10 minutes or so then slowly multileveled our way back up.
Sponge
Leatherjacket coming to say hello until I try to take a pic then off she goes
The wall life
This is a Hydroid Tree that the Jasons Miribalis Nudibranch exclusively live on although there wasn’t any on this particular one.
Encrusting Sponges…sorry if this appears a little out there…we were in some rather subtle surge…subtle meaning you didn’t realize it was there until you tried to focus on something with your camera
Little Blenny hiding out in a sheltered spot
Red Moki grazing like a cow
This is so cool to come across. These Demoiselle are hugging the wall and flapping their fins on the wall. They do this for two reasons. One to protect their eggs they have just laid on the wall and two so they send fresh oxygenated water onto the eggs. They also pretty aggressively defend their nest by swimming straight at you until you back off…pretty plucky little blighters
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Keep those reports coming and good luck with the SODS
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