WET Links

FORECASTS

• Wave, wind and tide forecast for Sydney on Seabreeze

• Wave forecast by NSW Government

• Map of the sea temperature from BOM

• Real time swell, wind and current for Botany Bay (Kurnell and Bare Island dive sites)

WEBCAMS North to South

Manly    Manly2   North Bondi    Clovelly 

DIVE SITES AROUND SYDNEY

On this website you can see some shore dive sites maps and descriptions, complementary to what is the most comprehensive reference: Michael McFadyen’s website. If you are looking for coordinates for a boat dive you can convert Michael’s ones (in AUS66 format) into the more common WGS 84 with this converter and then save them in Google Maps or with a specific navigation free app such as Commander Compass Go or Pure GPS for your smartphone.
Also, no descriptions but a very convenient kmz file with hundreds of locations you can load into Google Earth from Wayne Heming website.
Other coordinates for the artificial reefs of Botany Bay.

SATELLITE PICTURES FOR CHECKING THE COASTLINE SEABED

• Googlemaps - generally poor visibility of the seabed due to glare from the sun at the zenith but if you install the free Google Earth application you can browse old satellite imagery and find better images (yet not recent).

• SIX Maps by NSW Government  (excellent seafloor visibility if you don’t zoom in too much)

• Whereis maps another set of maps worth checking, for satellite images select the layer bottom right in the page

• Microsoft Bing worth checking as it usually has good pictures with little sun glare

SATELLITE PICTURES FOR CHECKING THE WATER CLARITY

From Sentinel, a satellite picture available every few days, in this link you can see the runoff after heavy rain in March 2021, change the date for checking current conditions. Most of days have no pictures for our area, to find  pictures zoom the map to the wanted area, then expand the calendar on the left:  the dates in a box are the ones with a picture, click on them.
Here the water quality assessment by Environment NSW.

MARINE MAPS

• SEED, a service by NSW Government for visualizing datasets across different surveys. Best resource for seeing the seabed rendered at 5 x 5 metres resolution and with precise bathymetry.  The base maps require layers to be selected among the many available and whatever you select does not get saved when you exit the page, so with the help of the SEED programmers I have created the two parametric links below for ease of use. Wait a few seconds for the layers to load. If using a smartphone, you need to maximise the map by tapping on the little left arrow right above "How to use the SEED map".

Selection n. 1: with layers optimised to show the seabed bathymetry.

Selection n. 2: with layers optimised to show reef vs sand.

• SEAMAP - for exploring the composition of the seabed around Australia, less spectacular than SEED but worth a look. You can access to this map created by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania.   Click here , zoom to the area you want to see and select the following layer for best results: SEAMAP AUSTRALIA NATIONAL BENTHIC HABITAT LAYER. Be mindful that empirical evidence suggests the maps (last update 2017) are not precise for the needs of dive planning when it comes to the exact position of the sand lines against the reef. Compared to the maps I have put together by direct observation with GPS (Cabbage Tree Bay, Shark Point, Curl Curl, Queenscliff) there can be a difference of up to 100m in the position of the sand line. 

• RMS: Middle Harbour  Port Jackson  Sydney ocean side   Botany Bay

• C-MAP

• NAVIONICS: Underwater topography

UNDERWATER VISIBILITY

Video recording of a very informative presentation by our member Jack Hannan on the factors affecting visibility in Sydney

FISH IDENTIFICATION

• iNaturalist - once you create a (free) account you can upload fish pictures and in a few seconds the iNaturalist will suggest the most similar fish identities

• Identifying sharks and rays by NSW DPI, an excellent visual guide

• Fishes of Australia - comprehensive list of the fish of our waters, scroll the gallery to find what you are looking to identify

• Nudibranch of NSW - by CSIRO

• List of marine species protected in Australia under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) 

WRECKS

• Search the maritime heritage sites map on the Heritage NSW website containing 2800 wrecks.

• A private initiative for finding wrecks NSW Wrecks

VIDEOS

• Little Known Wonders Of Sydney Harbour

• Best Scuba Diving in Sydney by Tom Park (2022)

• Best Snorkeling in Sydney, by Tom Park (2021)

ANTIQUE BOTTLES DATING

• Early Australian Commercial Glass Manufacturing Processes

• An Archaeological Guide to British Ceramics in Australia 1788-1901

• Dating the glass in Stirling Park

• Glass Glossary

OTHER

• eDNA analysis results to explore on the map

• Results of a study on deterrent for White sharks

• The incredible story of the arm thrown up by a shark in the Coogee Aquarium in 1935 and how it solved a murder case.

• Code of conduit when diving with Grey Nurse Sharks

• How to be found at sea: Differences between PLB, EPIRB, AIS, DCS.

• Excellent documentary on the Port Jackson sharks

• What is La Niña and how does it impact Australia?

• Excellent collection of articles in the blog of the Maritime Museum on maritime archeology, science, history

• Research paper: Flash photography impacts on fish - to flash or not to flash?

• Anatomy of the cuttlefish

• Shark anatomy diagram, an interesting view under the skin of the shark, from www.sharktrust.org

• Explore the depths with this cool animation

• Environmentally Friendly Seawalls A Guide to Improving the Environmental Value of  Seawalls and Seawall-lined Foreshores in Estuaries

• 21 best diving movies of all time

• How was the harbour tunnel built? Find it out in this article

• Revealed: the underwater secrets of Sydney Harbour 

If you have any other good link worth sharing send me a message!