Scuba Diving Perth
Shore Diving
Waikiki Beach:
Safety Bay Foreshore Reserve.
Warnbro Sound.
SITE INFO:
- Shore Dive: Old Artificial Reef Dive.
- No# of dives at site: 1. (Plus 1 night dive)
- Depth: Reef 9 meters: Slope to 15 meters (Dive 1).
- Reef Dimensions: 10m x 10m.
- Dive Conditions: Unknown, however we did dive this site just prior to a very serious storm and the area was flat, on the night dive dived with a westerly and the top was choppy, but once descended it settled nicely. This is an old artificial reef, not used much, nothing there, however I have heard that someone has been adding to it again, but I have not checked this out during the day, but wasn't evident on the night dive we completed here, boat traffic.
- Dive flag at Site: No.
Dive Review:
- I am going to keep this extremely brief, for several reasons:1. The day we dived was during a few days that WA was being hammered by severe storms, 45 minutes after we had finished the dive, roofs were being ripped from houses and boats were being washed up on shore, so it wasn't the best day to dive, if you get my drift.
2. The dive site is tiny and after years of neglect and being battered by the elements, there really isn't much there any more.
3. The vis wasn't great and apart from the most beautiful collection of Lionfish there really wasn't much else going on. - Ok....... Dived here in June 2012 and like I said previously the weather conditions were not ideal in any way shape or form. Fortunately for us this poor weather had reduced our usually large group of Sunday Morning Divers @ Dolphin Scuba to just a handful of dedicated divers. One of the regular divers Pete N thought that this site would be good for a small group and we could also get a little bit of shelter at the this site from the strong Northerlies that where coming in..... Oh how right he was.
- When we arrived at the site the rain was pouring the wind was blowing and I have to say I was gob-smacked........ the water was flat, smooth, perfect...... all most glass like...... you get the idea.
- By the time we had kitted up and had got in the water it did begin to get a little bit choppy but really nothing major. We made our way out to one of the yellow marker buoys about 100 meters from the shore, from there we descended and swam down the sloping bank in a generally southerly direction, until we hit the dive site at approx. 9 meters.
- When we first descended the vis was a few meters+ but, it soon closed in, especially around the site, maybe more due to us congregating around such a small area we just churned up some of the sand and silt.
- The site is tiny and all we could see were some upright poles/ropes attached to buoys, I really couldn't work out what they were. We did swim around the area that used to contain the artificial reef and apart from a few sporadic bits of debris or the occasional box there really wasn't much more. Originally the site had chairs, benches, swing sets and tyre reefs etc..... but long gone me thinks. We did swim out a bit further down the sloping bank in attempt to find other bits and pieces, we reached approx 15 meters but apart from sea grasses there wasn't anything there.
- With all that said, there was one thing that was here, actually more than one of them and that was a school of, actually I would call them a gang of Lionfish. There where loads of them hanging around, I have never seen so many in one spot, at the best I have seen a pair and, you rarely get to see a pair, so when I saw dozens of them I was speechless.
- Like all gangs, this gang had its leader, this bloody huge Lionfish, massive, absolutely massive, fully matured 300mm long, Big Daddy, Grand Daddy, The Dogs B's of a Lionfish, the KING KONG of Lionfish, I am telling you this thing was so big you would actually have to excuse yourself when trying to get passed him.........do you get the idea that it was the biggest I have ever seen ??
Directions
- Getting here is simple enough. Get on the Kwinana FWY (HWY 2) heading south, follow this to Safety Bay Rd and stay on Safety Bay Rd until you reach Safety Bay Foreshore Reserve or the BP garage on the corner of Safety Bay Rd & Malibu Rd. This site is approx. 45 minutes from Perth CBD & approx. 15 minutes from Rockingham Wreck Trail.
- I will make my apologise now. I have dived here once, and I am a little vague on the exact details of the dive site. The original land markers that divers used to line themselves up have changed since the area got redeveloped a couple of years ago. The instruction below will be pretty close. You may have to do a little bit of a swim around but not much, maybe an extra 10 meters or a couple of degrees either way.
- Do all your final checks (BWRAF), in the car park, the last thing you need is to get to
the dive entrance and then have to come back because you have forgotten
something or an O' ring blows.
- Once
you have geared up walk down the ramp onto the beach. To your right in the water approx 100m from the waters edge you will see either a yellow marker buoy or a floating pontoon.
- NOTE: After the night dive I am now not convinced the original map I produced was as close as I had hoped. So I have produced a newer map, so apologies for any inconvenience caused with the previous map.
- I think it is easier if you swim straight out from either the pontoon or the buoy (SW 225 degrees) for about 50 meters. If you reach 9'ish meters and haven't come across anything turn left (SE) and stay at 9 meters and see if you come across this very minimal site.
The Reef, The Marine Life, The Conclusion
In
12 Photographs
- There is so little that can be said about this dive due to the conditions of the day we dived, the conditions of the dive site in general and the overall lack of marine life.
- In the 1st two photographs you can see how bad the vis was and, this was just as we were descending. In the other photographs you can see how much the water was packed with particles.
-
I like to take photographs, lots and lots of photographs and, to
only get 12 usable photographs tells me it was a difficult day to take
photographs. And it was sparse, one Seahorse, one Ray, one Ascidian, one Starfish but....
- If you want Lionfish...... this is the place to go, I can't tell you they will always be there and certainly not in the numbers we saw on this day, but for the sake of one dive and getting to see them, I can't really complain.
- I won't be in a rush to come back here, and there are a couple of sites I would go to before I chose this one on a poor weather day, but it gives you options, and that can't be a bad thing to a divers repertoire. Give it a go, maybe on a nicer day you may get to see something a bit more.
- A better night dive than day dive.
Video
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