Date: Saturday 30rd July 2011
Location: Mordialloc
Divers: Jen, Jenann, Brendan, Bek, Mark, Wolf, Adrian, Aaron, Carlos and Ben
Water Temp: 10 C
Visibility: 8-10 m
Depth: 4.6m
Wind: Calm slight ripple, patchy skies

Last Saturday I decided to shore dive down at Mordialloc. After seeing and hearing glowing reports from the area I thought it was worth a look. When we arrived at the pier there was a strong northerly blowing. This was no issue as the wind was blowing along the shore and made only a slight ripples on the surface. As we had a couple of people who were newer to diving we entered from the shore. This gave us a bit of a false sense of the vis, it was crystal clear about 15m. As we headed out to the reef on the right, we came across a couple of stingrays buried in the sand, globefish, southern hula's, and couple of stray leatheries. This time off year there isn't much on the reefs, I don't know the reason but my thinking is it is cold, 9.5 degrees one of the boys computers read. We headed south towards the pier and as we got to the pier the marine life started to increase, due to the structure of the pier. This allows people to hurl shopping trolleys of it, seahorses love them and make homes out of them. Also in amongst these 11 arm sea stars, more globefish, red bait crabs and a couple of banded toadfish. We hit the pier right at the end and turn East(left) and then worked our way back along the pier. Very large schools of what I think were anchovies hung around the pier. Also they would swim behind you and if divers kick up the sand they immediately jump to the bottom in search of food. See pic here with the sand in it, it is not just bad bouyancy. I am waving my hand and the schools all come down to see what is on offer. When we arrived at the pier and did our walk to check the conditions out I noticed many Gannets diving into the water further up the beach towards the horse paddock. It is my guess that the birds were trying to get baitfish and that maybe these anchovies were hanging around the pier for shelter form the birds overhead, just a theory though. Along the pylons we didn't see many blennies and even the clear shrimps normally out and about. I was wondering if this is because of the time of year. There were several sea horses, redbait crabs, globefish and a bike. The bikes and shopping trolleys etc may be rubbish etc but they make great homes for marine life as they provide structure. These structures can be used for breeding, protection, a home/house and also a place to hunt for predators. We ended our dive at the ladder on the lower landing before heading back to the carpark to get changed and get a hot drink and something to eat. On a side note, I know the economy is struggling but 3 out 4 cafes we went to had no room and all were doing a roaring trade, we finally got a really nice one in Parkdale
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