Diving A Victorian Wreck.

Hi Wetpixies,

I had the great good fortune to dive one of the better wrecks in the "Ships Graveyard" area outside of Port Phillip Bay heads last

weekend and even managed some alright shots for my effort. Though I must learn to do a manual white balance setting at those

kind of depths. I'm so used to carefree critter hunting in 5 meters or less that I'm not switched on to such things except after the

dive when I'm back home processing the shots. Anyhow I think they came up ok but you be the judge.

The particular wreck we visited was the SS Coogee a steamer from the 19th century which had an eventful career plying the

waters of the Bass Strait and Port Phillip Bay before it was made redundant and scuttled in 1928, for a history lesson go here.

The most photographed part of the wreck is the stern where the Rudder Quadrant assembly sticks up and is festooned with Yellow Zoanthids.

We also dived an area of the Queenscliff coast not frequently dived due to big current flows which spew into and out of the bay through

the narrow opening at "The Heads". These daily tidal flows bring huge quantities of nutrients which creates conditions ideal for

a multitude of filter feeding organisms and the diving here is as colourful as anything you'll ever see and the marine life plenty, diverse

and often endemic to these southern coasts.

Here's a beautiful sponge I managed to capture.

The ledges here hide some beautiful invertebrates.

Hope you enjoy these images from this part of the world and I highly recommend you visit to see it for yourself one day.

Cheers,

Jim

Thanks for sharing these Jim - very interesting spot! I like the soft lighting on the sponge shot - very nice.

Cheers

James

Here's another shot from the drift dive, it's a small Gorgonian under a ledge.

Cheers,

Jim.

That last one has some gorgeous colour Jim - If only we had our own species of tiny seahorse to go with those gorgonians... Thanks for the dive on the weekend too.