Once again our local divers joined forces to support the Wellington Volunteer Coastguard and participated in the 24 Hour Dive Challenge.
53 divers conducted 44 dives, logging 104 individual dives in 24 hours and raised over $2500 (to date)
Teams of divers entered the waters of Scorching Bay, Wellington in a relay system with a 45 minute dive plan and a maximum depth of 10m.
Some of our regular club divers were booked in for several dives but we met some new divers on our refresher dives and conducted some Discover Scuba Dives for some novices who experienced scuba for the very first time.
We also had some of our divers complete their PADI Open Water Diver Course, Sidemount and Night Diving Specialty Courses.
There is a great juvenile reef system on the left hand side of the bay, sand that came to life in the dark and a shallower reef to the right which is a perfect site for our newest divers. There was plenty to see and some discussions on just what what fish…anemone…shell was seen on the dive. A pretty extensive list of observed marine life was added to each dive and included trevally, blue cod, sole, conger eels, squid, octopus, seahorses, pipefish, terakihi, mullet, wandering anemones, shield shells, whelks, yellow and blackfoot paua, a variety of triplefins including my favourite blue eyed triplefins!
Here are some of our favourite juvenile fish species!
And some of our favourite invertebrates…
The event could not run without our fantastic volunteers, divers and sponsors and we would love to thank everyone for their great effort this year for such a fun and successful experience!
Please show your appreciation and support our sponsors who assisted in the organisation or provided some great prizes for our raffles, silent auction and participating divers – we are still awarding prizes which is pretty exciting so keep an eye out on
www.facebook.com/24HourDive