Sipadan Malaysia Dive Report

Sipadan Island is a result of a geologic structure resembling the shape of a mushroom, with the shaft rising 1000m from the ocean floor and the tip of the mushroom cap protruding just above the surface. This arrangement leads to a ‘drop off’, where divers literally walk a few paces out from the beach and swim out over a submerged ledge, beyond which lies the abyss. Diving consists of a mixture of shore diving from the drop off and boat diving at various sites around the island.

read the rest of my trip report or visit the Gallery.

Wow....a very nice collection of shots.....underwater and topside....Malaysia is on my list to visit someday!

BTW, #22 is a clown trigger

Karl

Thanks for the tip Karl, I changed the caption

Its perhaps worth adding a footnote that, certainly as of summer 2005, it was no longer possible to stay on Sipadan island.

I visited from the liveaboard MV Celebes Explorer (which is very good). We were allowed to walk along the shore line near to the jetty shown in the trip report: but that was it. No walking into the interior and no walking around the island. And a military detachment with persuasive-looking light machine guns tended to underline the position.

But this had, happily, no impact on the diving which was indeed amazing. More turtles than you can shake a wide-angle lens at - let me through, boys - and the occasional pelagic. Some cute blue-ring octopus on nearby islands reefs too

Yes, TimG is correct. My article was written in mid-2004 and it is no longer possible to stay on Sipadan Island itself.

Hi, Love the photos.

Just one issue, I believe this area of Borneo is listed as a no go zone

because people were kidnapped and worse from there.

See Austrlian websites where they have travel warings for that area.

I notice people are still going, just wondered whether it was lack of

awareness of the problem or are they thrill seekers?

I would be interested to know if other people thought it was safe,

now?

Regards

Matt

Hi Matt,

The stories of kidnapping are true, but it was a one time incident that happened several years ago, and that is why you see the police boats in the area. I am returning for the 2nd time in October for U/W photoweek at Sipidan Water Village and am not the least bit concerned with going. It is a beautiful area to dive and photograph and other than the recent barge incident it is quite pristine. Others on this site were just there a feww weeks ago, and you can read about there experiences on this forum.

Sfe diving, Jeff B)

I made a trip there back in 2000, a month or so after the kidnapping incident you mention. That was the best time to go there ever. Most divers had cancelled their travel plans, so there were some really cheap deals, hardly anybody in the water, and the dives were awesome!

I haven't been to Sipadan in ages. I first went there in 1997 as a fairly new diver, spent 11 days there and loved it - then hopped over into Indonesia - then to Ozzie - then went back to Sipadan in 1999 and thought the reefs of Sipadan were in a shocking state, especially after what I had seen in Indonesia. Yes great fish with plenty of sharks and turtles but it was so sad to see so much reef damage! How are the reefs there now, is there much coral left in the shallows? How about shooting wide angle reef scenes?

Greetings All

I will be staying at Sipadan Water Village from 1 Sept 2006 to 10 Sept 2006. Anyone from Wetpixel there at the same time?

Thanks

Paul

We'll be there in October mate. You never know though, there might be other visitors...