Best laid plans and all that. My sister and I have been planning this dive for weeks at the Haven in the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. The weather leading up to our dive has been stunning; sunny and warm. Unfortunately the predicted rain arrived and it was cold and drizzly. We don’t give up easily and thankfully it was well worth the effort.
We started the dive with really poor visibility, I could barely see my sisters blue fins 1 metre in front of me. Luckily visibility improved as we descended beneath the waves. One of the first things we saw were lots of lobster skins, it was a strange sight. I then wondered if they were shed skins of growing lobsters. Have a look at this amazing video of a captive lobster shedding it’s skin (not my video).
Thankfully as we continued the visibility also improved. I found the first of many Port Jackson shark eggs, then realised I was close to an amazingly well camouflaged stonefish. As I was focused on that, I almost missed the Morey Eel hiding in the rocks.
After finding more Port Jackson shark eggs wedged in rock crevices, we saw finally saw our first Port Jackson shark. I hadn’t seen a PJ in ages and it was wonderful to see one again. It was the first of many, we ended up seeing over 10 varying in colours and sizes. This video (not my own) shows Port Jackson sharks in Sydney.
The many Port Jackson sharks, multiple moreys, octopus, little cuttlefish and shrimp were amazing, but the highlight was the Havens huge stingray. The Smooth Stingray Bathytoshia brevicaudatais is the largest stingray in the world. Check out the video below (not my video). This was not my first interaction with the Haven’s resident stingray, but that’s another story!
After a rough start it was a great dive with an incredible diversity of marine life. Hopefully my next dive will a be night dive at Shelley Beach. I’ll keep you posted on my next Journey beneath the Waves.
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