Jetty Dive Debrief – February 2024
Welcome to the February 2024 Jetty Dive Debrief! This is our newest addition to the blog – the “debrief”. Here we are going to let you know how the water has been, what the season showed us, any interesting or noteworthy details, and what we’ve achieved as a shop!
February started a bit slow, but the good conditions prevailed and we had some gorgeous diving! We had a brief interlude early on, but from Valentines Day onwards we had some amazing water! I was lucky enough to get out for a dive on one of the beautiful clear days, and it was truly magnificent!
Seasonal Marine Life Activity:
Early February we saw a good amount of Grey Nurse Sharks! There was 15 on the 1st, and 21 on the 2nd of Feb. We also saw 20 on the 18th of February, more than 6 on the 19th, and more than 20 on the 20th, 21st, 26th, and 27th. These are great Grey Nurse Shark numbers for warmer water!
We saw our first leopard sharks on the 2nd, and saw a pair on the 4th, one on the 14th, and one on the 15th all the way through to the 21st.
We also saw our usual summertime yellow boxfish! They were spotted on the 14th, 18th, 19th, 21st, and 26th.
There were plenty of the usual critters, but also some interesting sightings like the thornyback cowfish on the 21st, Dunker’s Pipehorse on the 17th and 18th, A Honeycomb moray on the 15th, a school of Chevron Barracuda on the 4th, and let’s not forget Mike’s lost mug on the 18th.
Certifications
PADI Open Water Divers
Congratulations to our newly certified PADI Open Water Divers:
Andrew, Cathy, Christen, Danielle, Duncan, Erin, Greg, Jacob, Jeffrey, Jesse, Joey, Katarina, Laerke, Marissa, Mignon, Milena, Montanna, Nathan, Tomas and Willem.
– Good work, divers!
PADI Advanced Open Water Divers
Congratulations to our newly certified PADI Advanced Open Water Divers:
Anna, Celysce, Dee, Matt, Nicolas, and Susie.
– Congratulations!
Congratulations to our newest Enriched Air Divers, David, Dee, Matt, Stewart! And Deep Diver Nadia – congrats!
Conditions
Visibility
The visibility for February was mostly good! Take a look in the graph below
Temperature
The temperature fluctuated a bit at the start of February, but settled towards the end of the month. See the graph below!
Sustainability and the environment
This section we are dedicating to showing what steps we are taking to reduce our environmental impact. It might include incentives we have implemented or tried through the month, or programs we have participated in. We intend to expand upon our conservation efforts page with everything we have implemented in store – as we are doing much more than this page shows!
We have partnered with Spot the Leopard Shark – a citizen science initiative focused on identifying and researching Leopard Sharks. Australia has the largest population of Leopard Shark, and we are lucky enough to see them (in big numbers!) throughout Summer. Leopard Sharks are globally listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Send any photos or videos to Spot the Leopard Shark!
In February we also renewed our Advanced Ecotourism Certification with Ecotourism Australia for the third year in a row! Read more about our Ecotourism Australia Certification here.
Photo of the Month
Want to be featured in our photo of the month? Send your submissions through to [email protected], with “Photo of the Month Submission” as your subject and I’ll pick the best one for our debrief and email newsletter.
The Month Ahead!
March is our warmest time of year! So join us at the Solitary Islands before we have to start wearing thicker wetsuits, and catch some of our warmer weather creatures like leopard sharks before they disappear for the year! Plus, March is traditionally Manta Season – if we see Manta Rays, it’s likely at this time. The end of the month also brings us Easter – and we’re open and diving every day of the Easter long-weekend – as long as the weather is in our favour!
Book in online or give us a call to secure your spot!
Newsletter
We have a monthly newsletter with updates similar to this blog post. Some of our favorite customer pictures, new product releases or favorite products. If you want to hear from us (we wont spam you, I promise!) sign up here, and click “Newsletter”.
If you have anything you would like to hear about in this debrief, or in our newsletter, or even any suggestions for another name for this debrief, please contact us and let us know!
Thanks for reading the February 2024 Jetty Dive Debrief! We appreciate you 🙂
About the Author
Tara is Jetty Dive’s Office Manager and IT Lady, Social Media Queen, Crazy-Fish-Lady, and as she likes to say – “Self-Appointed CEO”. You’ll find her sitting at her desk surrounded in pink, but happiest either on or under the water.
