Latitude Rock

Latitude Rock is a rock dive site off the Forster area of New South Wales, an 8 metre tall sloped rock running east to west on a sandy bottom. Depths run from 10 to 18 metres, and the dive can be a loop or an out-and-back along either side, depending on which is calmer that day.

The southern side is flat rock that slopes from the sand at 18 metres up to a ridge at 10 metres, with kelp beds that draw red morwong and schooling silvers. The northern side drops as a wall from the ridge into gutters, overhangs, cracks and the odd bombora rock, with pink, orange and yellow sponges growing across it.

The gutters shelter grey nurse sharks, port jackson sharks, wobbegongs, fiddler rays, shovelnose rays and turtles. Octopus, cuttlefish, nudibranchs, lobster and three species of eel live on the rock, and eastern blue groper follow divers around. Yellowtail kingfish, bull rays, eagle rays and trumpetfish pass through the open water, and blue-spotted stingrays rest on the sand.