Dive Report Tāwaharanui

26 March 2023
Waves 0.5-1m
High Tide 12:30pm
No current
No waves at depth
Vis 6m or so

I didn't get the Kayak into the water until nearly 12pm (many trips carrying stuff from carpark)
Paddled to the eastern arm of Anchor Bay, I could see the bottom to about 8m. Found a spot I thought was safe to anchor, tried to get off the reef but my anchor was in the Ecklonia at 10m.

I descended the anchor line to 10m to find a stunning Ecklonia forest in great condition. No fish on the way down for some reason, but 20 seconds later I saw a small snapper, then a leather jacket, and I was surrounded by jack mackerel (a large school). Medium sized trevally hang back in the distance while a kingfish cruised by. Vis was about 6m.

I looked around the reef a bit, heading North (deeper). I check three crevices and only found one crayfish. I was very pleased to find four Yellow-and-black triplefins in one spot. On the reef I saw many goatfish, a few common triplefins, one masked triplefin, a few variable triplefins, a large school of small juvenile snapper, a school of sweep, a large school of larger juvenile snapper, and a handful of red moki and spotty. I did not see any 'landable' snapper here. By far the most numerous fish were the jack mackerel which came in at least three size classes / schools. It was enjoyable to watch the schools collide in front of me. Still no mediterranean fanworm found.

I followed a valley which turned to rubble and opened up into something between shell hash and sand at around 16m. To warm up I powered out over it, heading North. There were cool mounds in the shell, I'd love to know what made them. I then carried on North for another 30m where there was a dramatic switch to mud / sand. Both substrates were covered in fine algae / biofilm which had an interesting pattern. I enjoyed watching feather duster worms retract into the sediment as I swam by, I stuffed up a photo of a snake eel which I accidentally scared back into it's hole and did not have time to wait for it to come back out.

Posted on Μάρτιος 27, 2023 0845 ΜΜ by shaun-lee