Sipadan Island is a small rainforest covered tropical island rising from a depth of more than 600 meters from the bottom of the Celebes Sea. It is the only oceanic island in the region. The island is the top of a long-lost lava chimney from a prehistoric volcano. The very famous late French underwater explorer and filmmaker, Jacques-Yves Cousteau once remarked about Sipadan Island “I have seen other places like Sipadan… 45 years ago. Now we have found again an untouched piece of art.” Although that was many years ago, it is still true today. The island is arguably the top scuba vacation in the world.
The island is about 45 minutes from Semporna town by speedboat in calm seas. Other nearby islands include Mabul Island and Kapalai Island. All within just a short hop by speed boat ride from each other.
Sipadan Island
The attractions that you will see while scuba diving in Sipadan, Malaysia are endless. Turtles are abundant here, and it is not uncommon to be able to watch them for lengthy periods munching away at algae and sponges or lazing around on wall shelves. The amount of macro life that inhabits the walls is also staggering. You could literally while away hours of precious scuba diving time zeroing in on these tiny, wonderful creatures.
Sipadan is also home to some of the most popular scuba diving sites to be found in all of Malaysia. Here is a brief overview of just a few of the most popular dive sites to be found in Malaysia:
1)South Point’
Located at the southern-most tip of Sipadan, South Point’s drop off is about 45 degrees, which slopes down towards a flat sandy area of coral formation at approximately 65 metres. It then continues on toward deeper end of the sea.Marine life here includes the leopard sharks, reef sharks, turtles, soft corals, large batfish, sweetlips, turkeyfish, bigeye trevallies, great barracudas, whale sharks, manta rays, eagle rays, and hammerhead sharks.
2)Staghorn Crest’
Another wall dive well known to Sipadan is the Staghorn Crest. This site begins with a gentle descent along the drop-off till it reaches approximately 70 metres and continues with a gradual ascent along the wall. It concludes in a staghorn coral garden at a shallow depth.At greater depths, other types of species can be found, i.e. foxsharks, and trevallies.Marine life here includes of course the staghorn corals, seawhip corals, gigantic barrel sponges, black corals, angelfish, groupers, shrimps, giant mantas, barracudas, and fox sharks.
3)Hanging Gardens’
This classical wall dive is at a vertical drop-off point over a meter from the surface, which descends to about 70 metres. Here, the seabed suddenly plunges into the abyss. The dive always follows the current here, which isn’t that strong.
Marine life here includes the alcyonarians, gigantic gorgonians, black corals, sweetlips, angelfish, groupers, green turtles, imbricate turtles, blue-spotted ribbon-tail stingray, nudibranchs, tiny gobies, gorgonian hawkfish, leopard sharks, and hammerhead sharks.
4)Barracuda Point Reef
Putting it mildly, Barracuda Point is famous for barracuda sightings. Actually the barracuda sightings reported at Barracuda Point are not mild by anyone's standards. While scuba diving the point, many divers have reported being caught up in a swirling vortex of chevron or blacktail barracuda so dense that they could not see anything through the vortex. Grey reef sharks are also frequently spotted in this favorite Malaysia dive spot as are parrotfish and turtles.
5)The Drop Off
The Drop off is not only the best shore dive in Malaysia, it is often regarded as the best shore dive in the entire world. Just a short distance from the beach, strollers will encounter The Drop Off. Scuba diving in this location will reveal a magical underwater world complete with colorful coral and sponges clinging to the vertical wall. Nooks and crannies are home to crabs, shrimp, and other macro life just waiting to be discovered by inquisitive divers. If you don't feel like searching for the underwater wonders of Malaysia, don't worry. Scuba diving in this location will also bring you up close and personal with large schools of jacks, barracuda, and bumpheaded parrotfish as well as whitetip sharks, grey reef sharks, and turtles.
6)Sipadan Midreef
The 6 metre hard coral flats that top the reef make an ideal safety stop. Small hardy stubbly table corals, and porites corals dominate here, and these form the staple diet for packs of bumphead parrotfish, sometimes 40 or so strong. Moving like a herd of African buffalo, munching their way through the dense bush, these largest of all parrotfish are a terrific sight and safety stops often become very long here!
7)Turtle Patch
The reef here has some outstanding acropora staghorn coral stands, leather corals and small table corals. Hiding out here you can find spotted sweetlips and pufferfish, such as the mappa puffer. Lionfish and moray eels are also common here. In the rocky areas, orange spinecheek anemonefish watch you from the safety of their magnificent anemone homes of orange, green and purple. And with a bit of luck and if you're observant, you may spot a leaffish swaying slowly in the current.
Turtle Patch is located in the southeast corner of Sipadan Island, just to the northeast of South Point. Since it is located along the east coast, its wall is best dived in the mornings, however, the shallows are exposed to sunlight throughout the day.
8)Turtle Cavern
Inside the cavern you will see the skeletons of those previous entrants who failed to find the exit and perished. Deeper penetration of the system reveals the cavern as home to shoals of fish specifically adapted to the low light environment of the further reaches.
9)Whitetip Avenue
The wall is full of terraces, crevices, ledges and vertical chimneys which are worth a look into - you'll find sponges of all shapes and colours, black coral colonies and gorgonian fans. Among this rich coral life, you'll find reef and den fish circulating merrily. Watch out for groupers, emperor angelfish, moorish idols, triggerfish, parrotfish, clownfish, boxfish, scorpionfish and butterflyfish. You may also find yourself cavorting with a friendly turtle (or ten!).
10)Coral Garden
In depths between 5 and 10 metres, you can observe dozens of green turtles feed on the edges of the wall, and encounter featherstars at every turn. If you are looking for an encounter with a wrasse then the humphead wrasse will oblige. Triggerfish of the clown and titan variety are plentiful and may even allow you to take their photo without attack on their mind. Good luck!
There’s a reason why the place is called the Drop Off. Imagine just kneeling down in shallow water and looking straight down into the abyss 600 meters away at the edge. Really scary and exciting at the same time! During your dives at the Drop Off, you might see (or maybe bump into, if you don’t see where you are going) a couple of Manta Rays playing nearby.
Chances are very good that you will encounter a big swirling school of thousands of chevron barracudas and also see packs of patrolling grey reef sharks at Barracuda Point.
If you are lucky, you can spot the largest shark species, the Whale Shark gliding by in the current off South Point during it’s migration.
Related links in Dive In Sipadan :
Dive the World
Sipadan Dive Resort
Sipadan Kapalai Resort
Divesite Directtory
Sipadan Diving Vacation
Sipadan Dive- BackPackers.com
Diving At Sipadan
Dive Malaysia.com
Asia Divesite
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