March and April 2026- Sydney
- theurbanshark
- Mar 9
- 6 min read
Updated: May 3
9/3/2026-The Leap
Max Depth: 20.3 metres
Time: 47 minutes
Temp: 21 degrees above 5 metres, 17 below that.
The weather in Sydney has been absolutely horrid recently, so it was nice to be able to jump in (meant very literally in this case). However, for the week preceding this dive, there has been a prevailing easterly swell and north-easterly winds, which in Sydney cause a deep-sea upwelling. This is not good for diving as, inevitably, cold green water gets dragged onto the continental shelf. Even worse for the conditions, it's been raining pretty heavily, meaning the top 5 metres were warm, but emerald green with almost zero visibility. Below that, the vis was still green and bad, and it was very cold. At 20 metres, it was very dark, and everything was the colour of spinach. Despite this, we made the best of the conditions. Jenna found a short-tailed ceramatosa, a nudibranch species I have never seen before. Also got close enough to a Giant Boarfish for a photo for the first time. Plenty of other stuff around, saw a weedy seadragon near the exit at the steps, lots of fiddler rays, a large banded wobbegong, tons of yellowtail (the combination of them and the poor vis was very unnerving, thought I was going to end up on the news), one of those undescribed yellow and black Jorunna nudibranchs and a Zebra Lionfish. It would have been an above-average dive if it weren't for the awful conditions.
11/3/2026- Shelly Beach
Max Depth: 7 metres
Time: 67 minutes
Temp: 23 degrees
Decided to get a sneaky arvo dive in before the swell goes mental for a few days. Was a bit of an adventure today at Shelly, with some very varied conditions around the dive site. The right-hand side of the bay started off with some very nice vis, but once I got past the point and into the full brunt of the swell, the vis deteriorated to 3 metres with tons of suspended algae, what some divers call a snot storm. Despite this, there were tons of fish around, loads of Diamondfish, snappers, blue morwong and spangled emperors. We turned here and ventured across the bay to the seagrass. Here, my buddy Matthew saw two Dusky Whalers, which I of course missed. However, one soon cruised over for a look at us. It was a tiny one, must have only been born about 6 months ago. What followed was a bit of a game of cat and mouse over the seagrass as we looked for the duskies again. Despite seeing a few swarms of very terrified looking yellowtail, we didn't encounter them again. However, I ran into Basil the turtle, a few occies, an eagle ray, and a school of squid, so it was definitely worthwhile to just hang out at the seagrass. Very nice dive aside from the dickhead who was driving his boat around in the shallows.
8/4/2026- Fairy Bower
Max Depth: 7.1 metres
Time: 63 minutes
Temp: 23 degrees
Have finally gotten a dive in after nearly a month of a constant pattern of high swell, then lots of rain, making having a pleasant dive nearly impossible. Jumped in at about 4pm, and I hadn't factored in the end of daylight savings, so it was a lot darker then I had anticipated as the vis near Fairy Bower and on the left hand side of Shelly was pretty bad. Saw a really big Giant Cuttlefish right after I jumped in, but after that I kept moving as I psyched myself out about the low light (the swarms of very scared fish around didn't help). Missed most of the left hand side of shelly because of this aside from a wobbegong. However once I crossed over to the seagrass at Shelly, the vis cleared up and it became very pleasant. I looked around a bit for Basil the turtle over the seagrass, and ran into a huge school of Longnose Trevally, a usually tropical species. They left pretty quickly. Once I crossed over to the boulders I saw a huge baitball of pilchard, being predated upon by tailor and Aussie salmon, very cool. I went out further and the vis once again decreased. There were huge amounts of tropicals on the boulders, including about 6 adult Moorish idols, and some tropical snapper species, really awesome to see. The big school of trevally then reappeared and swirled around me, an experience you usually don't have in Sydney. I then went back to the baitball. It was beautiful watching it in golden hour, and I had a very curious Blue Groper and a large Snapper keeping me company; the Blue Groper even kissed my camera. Heard some splashing on the surface, and before I could really react, a Dusky Whaler flew past me, getting chased by a couple of snorkellers. I got a good picture out of it, but people should really know better than to behave like that. They also then decided to make the baitball all about them and swim into it, scaring off all the fish preying on it. Once I saw the sun was properly setting I moved back over to the seagrass to have a final look for Basil. As I was about to get there, I wasn't really paying attention, and I nearly swam into a pretty decent-sized Dusky Whaler going across my path. It was by no means an adult, but was probably about 1.7 metres long, and easily pulled away from me without any visible effort, so the photos of it I got weren't any good. Pretty disconcerting how easily sharks can get the drop on you, of course the vast majority of the time they arent trying anything, but have noticed how easily they do it on multiple occasions. After that went in as the sun was setting, and needed to save my torch for the night dive I had planned.
8/4/2026- Clifton Gardens
Max Depth: 6.7 metres
Time: 75 minutes
Temp: 22 degrees
After my brilliant Shelly dive, I was tired but keen to get wet again for a night dive. Did the usual Clifton dive, out to the Seahorse hotels, then the nets, and then down to the jetty. Ryan wanted to look for an Ornate Ghost Pipefish, but we didn't find one. We of course saw the anglerfish, which has seemingly imprisoned itself within the seahorse hotels, and a new species of cuttlefish for me, a Rosecone cuttlefish. Up near the nets, we saw a new species for me, a pleurobranch called an orange gumdrop, because it looks just like a lolly, pretty funny. There were tons of seahares of three species around on this dive, the really gross looking Blunt Ended Seahares and the more aesthetically pleasing White Speckled and Sydney Seahares. Saw some really cool stuff near the jetty. Under one of the pylons there were two huge hermit crabs, one the pretty typical Mauve Eyed Hermit Crab, which is just big and red, and an anemone hermit crab, which has hectic patterns on its claws and eye stalks, and places anemones on its shell, super cool. There was also a huge moray living here to top it all off. Also found a big blue swimmer crab, and a dwarf lionfish nearby. Pretty cruisy dive with lots of cool critters.
9/4/2026- Shelly Beach
Max Depth: 7.8 metres
Time: 62 minutes
Temp: 23 degrees
Since Shelly was so nice yesterday, I decided to go in again. Vis was slightly worse than yesterday, but by no means awful. Went looking for more duskies, but knew since I was diving in the middle of the day during school holidays with tons of people around, I probably wouldn't see them. I did find a huge giant cuttlefish on the hunt, and a lot of tropicals on the right hand side. Over the seagrass I saw a tons of squid, some fiddler rays and Basil the turtle. Felt awful because it nearly careened into me because the swell, but Basil didnt seem too miffed and moved pretty calmly onwards to another spot. Had to call the dive with half a tank left so I could get to work on time.
30/4/2026- Shelly Beach
Max Depth: 7.2 metres
Time: 60 minutes
Temp: 22 degrees
Was able to sneak in an afternoon dive after a long time out of the water. Vis was really good in the shallows, but like all month, it got worse as I got deeper. Went out to the motorbike and found an Angel Shark, which was mostly buried. I have never seen one before, so that was really cool. Back along the boulders, there were tons and tons of tropicals, as well as a Wobbegong swimming around. Cut across to the seagrass to go hang out with Basil for a little bit. Whilst I was there, a Dusky swam past, and I managed to briefly get both Basil and the shark in frame. As the sun was setting, there was tons of fish activity, including a school of small tuna wizzing around at sonic speeds, not sure of the exact species, maybe Mackerel Tuna or Frigate Tuna. A very nice dive.
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