Chris Vs World

Dive Site Geelong – Alcoa Pier Pt Henry

Posted on 27. Dec, 2010 by admin in Diving

Map:

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Considerations This is a working industrial pier so I’m not really advising anyone of actually doing this. But having said that if you decide to ignore my warnings its a very nice site. The other thing its pretty shallow and could very easily done on snorkel.
The entry is not fun. You have to climb down these rocks at the end of the pier. The other option would be to enter from the beach but that would involve a whole lot more swimming.

Site: There is lots of life. Saw 5 short tail ceratosoma nudibranchs on one pylon. Also found a Trapania brunnea (pretty sure anyway, it was pretty small.) Other things include a number of fiddler rays, a white shrimp (dont have an ID on this.. Let me know if you know what it is?), Stingaree (Urolophus Sp), and lots of goat fish and banded puffers. Baby stingaree’s that took shelter under my buddy.. then realized it was a person took shelter under me.. then realized i was a person and high tailed it. Good comic value from baby stingarees.

Recommend: Well its a bit dicey considering its a working pier with large ships docking there. I’m sure if there was work going on at the time you would be told to piss off. But if you stick in pretty close to the shore you should be right. Its a very long pier and I only got about 100-200 m out and it was still only 2m deep so I dont think any boats would come in that close. Also who know what is in the water there. My buddy made me a bit paranoid after the dive when I started scratching myself. Its a heavy metals plant and I dont know what they put out in the bay. I assume this day and age it would be all good but, who knows. So overall its worth doing once to see if you can turn up some new and interesting species, or if your in town and want to go for snorkel close by. And even though the wind was very strong the viz was still pretty good.

Picture:

Stingaree (Urolophus Sp) in grass under Pt Henry Pier

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