The destination for the monthly MLSSA club dive was Second Valley.
Unfortunately, only Jonathon and I could go for a dive on this particular day (20th April), but it turned out to be a rewarding dive in very nice weather. Jonathon had heard that the diving out from the north end of the beach was meant to be good, so we decided to give this a go, instead of doing the usual Second Valley dive which is south of the jetty. Well, the site was nowhere near as interesting as the usual one, but finding a beautiful weedy seadragon more than made up for it!
Once out past the empty sandy bottom, the seafloor consists of small patches of low rocky reef interspersed with seagrass meadows and small sandy patches. We caught two juvenile slender weed whiting (Siphonognathus attenuatus) for the new MLSSA display aquarium, and they are doing very well, despite problems with the ammonia levels…
To find out about the next local(ish) monthly MLSSA dive, either come along to the general meeting, or ring me during one of the days (or nights) after the meeting. I welcome suggestions for dive sites, as I have had more experience with diving from boats rather than the shore, and hence am not familiar with many shore diving sites. Of course, if you have a boat and would like to take a few MLSSA members out with you for a dive, we would love to hear from you!
Cheers, hope to see you out diving soon.
Sharon Drabsch
MLSSA Diving Officer