Cabbage Tree Bay
List of all the 360 species that have been sighted here: John Sear's iNaturalist page
Note about WeedylandAs of January 2023, the colony of weedy seadragons seems to have disappeared after the big swell of March 2022 when more than a hundred were found washed up on the beaches from Manly to Mona Vale. Chances of spotting one in CTB are near to zero at the moment, even if one individual been randomly reported (compared to up to 5 individuals found in a single dive in the past).Normally the map would not show precise locations of the sightings, having chosen to protect them by indicating the generic "Weedyland" area, but since those sightings are no longer relevant, we decided to expose them (stars) as a curiosity.
Expand here for the dive site description
This site has already been described in multiple places, such as Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving website, but here is where you will find the most updated map.
Goggles Graveyard was named in 1/2023 after realising that for some reasons all the rubbish tend to concentrate there, especially goggles.
Some universities, such as UTS, have established Pocillopora aliciae coral survey sites on the oceanside of CTB. The first specimens were found here around 2012 by John Sear, as of 2023 the area has extended and specimens can be found all over North and East of the headland, plus one in the bay. Another colony in Sydney has been found by Marco Bordieri in June 2022 at Dobroyd Head, currently the world's southermost on iNaturalist.
Acoustic receiver poles are scattered around. Similar receivers had been used for a study on tagged Wobbegongs in 2008-2013, here the research paper.
Photos of the points of interest indicated on the map
A Weedy Seadragon
Motorbike 1
-33.799318° 151.295836°
Motorbike 2
-33.798606° 151.295833°
The Big Cube, a point of reference, roughly a cube 3 m wide (more cubical than what it appears in this wide angle photo). From there if you go to magnetic North for 50 m you will enter Weedyland where you may spot a Weedy Seadragon (if you are lucky)
-33.798315 151.296285
Dragon Tooth, a characteristic rock pointing upwards, in 6 metres
The Starglazer Rock, depth of 6.5m (plus tide, like all the depths shown here), another good reference for pointing to Weedyland. It's 58 m after the Big Cube.
-33.798058 151.296793
Acoustic receiver 3
The pole is covered with kelp
Acoustic receiver 4
The pole is covered with kelp
Acoustic receiver 2
The pole is covered with kelp
The Big Dick is pointing to the smaller of the 2 "Deep Reef"
-33.797908 151.295545
The Arch is about 3 m long and raising 30 cm from the floor
-33.798796 151.295821
A segment of an empty plastic pipe emerged lately from the sand.
Acoustic receiver 1
A data recorder to keep track of large fish with acoustic tag
-33.798553 151.295093
How the mapping passion started in July 2020 and the first version of the map
