March 2023 – Jetty Dive Debrief
Welcome to the March 2023 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!
Some months feel like they whiz by, and March was definitely one of those for me! It’s our warmest time of year, so we’re still quite busy – especially with future-dated school holiday bookings. Plus, we’re getting Whale Watching enquiries already (It’s not Whale Season here until June, by the way!). We also onboarded new team member Teagan this month, who has completed her PADI Instructor Course after original certification with SSI.
In my office-work world, I’ve been slowly ticking off items on my digital to-do list. We’ve added a “live chat” function to the website, which is an exciting way to connect easier with our customers. Hopefully more little things will continue to be ticked off slowly throughout the year. Watch this space 😉
Seasonal Marine Life Activity:
March 2023 brought with it plenty of leopard sharks and clear water! On the 5th we saw Leopards and 6-8 Grey Nurse Sharks. On the 12th at North Solitary our divers saw 10-15 Leopard sharks, the most at one site in March. They also saw 6 Grey Nurse, a QLD Groper and a Sandbar shark.
On they 18th there was again 6-8 Grey Nurse, and 9 Leopard sharks. On the 17th there was 10-12 turtles, which was a treat for our divers! There was plenty of Grey Nurse Sharks throughtout the rest of the month, wiht 6 on the 18th, 4-6 on the 19th, and 6-8 on the 25th. There was also 13 leopards on the 25th, and a 1.5 metre QLD Groper. More leopards on the 25th, with Turtles and Grey Nurse Sharks too.
The 27th was a cracker day – with 12 leopard sharks, turtles and a mystery Whaler shark. This followed on to the 29th, with 6 Grey Nurse Sharks, 10 Leopard Sharks, a Sandbar Shark, a Male Bull Shark, 3 Turtles, a massive bul Ray, and our snorkellers saw a hammerhead shark. What a day!
The month was tied up on the 30th with a dozen Grey Nurse Sharks, Leopard sharks, Turtles, and Bull Rays.
We also ran a night dive in March, on the 17th. On these nights our staff don’t finish up until about 9:30pm, so we don’t ask them to do a dive report! But we had a small group of divers head to split solitary for a single dive in the darkness.
Certifications
PADI Open Water Divers
Congratulations to our newly certified PADI Open Water Divers:
Amaia, Bohdi, Holly, Jemma, Lachlan, Morgan, Naomi, Sally, William.
– Good work, divers!
PADI Advanced Open Water Divers
Congratulations to our newly certified PADI Advanced Open Water Divers:
Glen, Mia, Sophia, Troy – Congratulations!
Congratulations to Rebecca for completing her Enriched Air, and Scott for completing his Tec 40 course.
PADI Rescue Divers
Congratultaions to Danielle, and Jarrah for completing their Rescue Course!
Conditions
Visibility
For the month of March visibility was quite good, especially during the second half of the month! Our high was 30m on the 17th, and low was 5m on the 12th. The visibility varies even from site to site which is why we have two variables when tracking. Take a look at our graph below for a more detailed and visual look at our month’s visibility.
Temperature
Generally Temperature sits around 24°C-25°C in March, but we experienced a few days wherethere were thermoclines or lower temperatures. Check out our charting of the temperatures 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!
There hasn’t been many changes to us this month! However, I did want to share an article from Planet Ark demonstrating one way that our recycled coffee cups are being used: In ashfault for Sydney Roads!
Take a look at the Planet Ark Article on recycled coffee cups.
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!
The weather and the water starts to cool down in April! It’s our traditional “Manta” season, so North Solitary trips usually include a 3rd short dive to North West to try and find some Mantas.
Newsletter
We are starting 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 March 2023 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.
