Located at the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin, the centre of one of the richest marine habitats in the world, Sipadan Island is noted as one of the top dive sites in the world. More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in this ecosystem.

REEF BASICS
Great for: Large animals, wall diving, drift dives and advanced divers
Not so great for: Wrecks, beginner divers and non-diving activities
Depth: 5 - 40m / Visibility: 10 - 30m / Currents: Can be strong
Surface Conditions: Can be choppy / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Experience Level: Intermediate - advanced / Number of dive sites: 12
Distance: 12 km (25 minutes) south from Mabul and 10 km (18 minutes) southwest from Kapalai / 90 minutes from Semporna
Access: Diving from Mabul / Kapalai resorts and Semporna
Recommended length of stay: 5 - 14 days, including the nearby islands




POPULAR DIVE SITES

Barracuda Point
Reef Basics: Wall then valley
Depth: 5 - 40m / Visibility: 20 - 30m / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Currents: Can be strong / Surface Conditions: Can be choppy
Experience Level: Intermediate - advanced

Barracuda point is so named because of the large shoal of barracudas often found in this spot.. Probably the most popular site with pretty good visibility anywhere from 20m to 30m but currents can be unpredictable. This dive site is preferable for those who are experienced. Average depth is about 15m. There is every chance that you can find yourself in the middle of a swirling vortex of chevron or blacktail barracuda.

Normally divers roll in to the top of the wall here at about ten metres. There may be some current but that means there is lots of food which duly brings in tons of fish. Grey reef sharks are always patrolling the perimeter here, hunting for lunch. Cruise along the wall dropping down as far as you wish, and keep an eye out for a herd of bumphead parrotfish and turtles in every nook and cranny.
A word of caution though, don't venture too deep to the north of this site as the currents can get very strong and sweep you downwards, out and away from the island.

Even without the barracudas this is a most colourful and entertaining dive but just when this thought flashes through your mind, you may be engulfed in a tornado of barracudas � more than the eye can take in. A superb moment in an outstanding dive.

The Drop Off
Reef Basics: Wall dive
Depth: 5 - 40m / Visibility: 15 - 30m / Water Temperature: 27 - 30�C
Currents: Can be strong / Surface Conditions: Can be choppy

The Drop Off is in many ways the signature dive of Sipadan Island. When Sipadan had resorts stationed on it, this site was a mere stroll off the beach where a 600 metre drop would welcome you to the underwater world. The diving site is widely regarded as the best beach dive in the world.
Within five minutes of entering the water you are likely to see several hundred jacks circling overhead and a squadron of bumpheaded parrotfish charging around. These can prove a serious distraction from the ubiquitous whitetip sharks, grey reef sharks
and green turtles.

The wall itself has a wide variety of coral and sponges and although there is an astonishing line-up of large fish around. You will find the Drop-Off to also be a great night diving spot as every nook and cranny in the walls is worth investigating for crabs, shrimp and various other nocturnal sub-aquatic wonders.

Midreef
Reef Basics: Wall dive
Depth: 5 - >40m / Visibility: 10 - 25m / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Currents: Moderate - strong / Surface Conditions: Can be choppy
Experience Level: Intermediate - advanced

Lazily decend to your required depth down the vertical wall that forms Sipidan Midreef, then just drift along with the current, whichever way it takes you - north or south.

Once you begin your dive along the wall you'll soon be kept busy inspecting the dominant soft corals, navy knotted sea fans and orange gorgonian fans that hang from the ledges. Pygmy gobies and whip gobies are in abundance here. Forsters hawkfish are often seen hanging out, resting motionless on the small sponges. Five-lined cardinalfish and harlequin sweetlips move furtively under the many ledges and overhangs. Sulu fangblennies, known only to northern Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago, form aggregations among the gorgonians.

As with nearly all the Sipidan dive sites, Midreef can have quite strong currents, with an added tendency to push you upwards too. This occurs most often in the presence of cold water thermoclines rising from the depths. The trade-off though is that the adverse conditions bring with them higher densities of fish life. Large schools of moorish idols, redtooth triggerfish, unicornfish and bannerfish race along the wall. Smaller schools of round batfish pass by and Napoleon wrasse are regular visitors here

The six 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 forty 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!
 

Staghorn Crest
Reef Basics: Wall dive
Depth: 20 - 40m / Visibility: 20 - 30m / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Currents: Moderate - strong / Surface Conditions: Calm
Experience Level: Intermediate - advanced

At this Pulau Sipadan dive site, you will find yourself beginning with a gentle descent along the drop-off, followed by a gradual diagonal descent along the wall, at the shallow end of which there is a garden of staghorn corals. Photographers take note - this site has brilliant light conditions during the afternoons which offers excellent illumination for superb underwater images.

On the face of the wall, take a close look into the numerous cervices, balconies, cavities and protruding vaults where you will see a profusion of marine life which have made their home there.
You will find red seawhip corals, black corals, barrel sponges and a plethora of reef fish. In particular, watch out for groupers, nudibranchs, angelfish, gobies, grunts, shrimps and triggerfish. Due to the untouched nature of the Sipadan reefs, the coral formations have grown to huge sizes; the black corals in depths between 15 and 40 metres have bushes which have grown up to two metres wide.

Because of the variable currents which can be strong at this diving spot, novices should stick close to the divemaster. However, more experienced divers with a yearning for adventure can strike out to about 30 metres away from the wall towards the expanse of open sea. Here, you will come across giant manta rays, scalloped hammerhead sharks, rare fox sharks and leopard sharks.
 

Whitetip Avenue
Reef Basics: Coral garden on the edge of a drop-off
Depth: 16 - 40m / Visibility: 20 - 30m / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Currents: Gentle - moderate / Surface Conditions: Calm
Experience Level: Beginner - advanced
Number of dive sites: 2

With a name like "Whitetip Avenue", you can look forward to numerous encounters with schools of gentle whitetip reef sharks. This, however, is only one of the many amazing underwater sights this Borneo Sipadan site holds for you. A coral reef located at a shallow depth before plunging into the 600 metres vertical abyss, Sipadan diving is full of unexpected encounters. You'll find yourself in the middle of a huge silver school of bigeye travellies or within a colourful palette of gigantic bumphead parrotfish.

The route you take will be determined by your Dive Master depending on the direction of the current. Either way, you will find the wall on one side and the open sea on the other. 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!).

The open sea on the other side holds encounters with pelagics of Sipadan like the grey reef shark, and naturally, whitetip reef sharks. Novice divers are not encouraged to venture into the deep side of the drop-off.

Coral Garden
Reef Basics: Coral gardens
Depth: 14 - 22m / Visibility: 20 - 30m / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Currents: Gentle / Surface Conditions: Calm
Experience Level: All levels of experience

Although the temptation of the drop-off is always there, this site is a haven for the underwater photographer. The health and diversity of the coral growth combined with the fact that almost every species to be seen in Pulau Sipadan�s waters is on view here. You can observe the turtles feed on the edges and encounter feather stars 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!

Sipidan (Sipadan) Island, it is often said, has everything that the Indo-pacific has to offer and for the macro photographer, Coral Garden will occupy many a pleasure filled hour.

Hanging Gardens
Reef Basics: Wall diving along a vertical drop-off
Depth: 5 - >40m / Visibility: 20 - 30m / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Currents: Gentle / Surface Conditions: Calm
Experience Level: Beginner - advanced

In a nutshell, this is a wall dive which begins with a drop-off just over a metre from the surface, descends gradually to a terrace at about 70 metres and then plunges into an abyss. This is the topography here - hence its name 'Hanging Gardens'. The terraces, filled with a proliferation of dendronephythya alcyonarians in various pastel colours of lemon, lavender and antique rose overflowing down to the next level, harks back to the mythological Babylonian gardens after which it is named.

To the underwater photographers out there, take a close look at the alcyonarians and gorgonian fans which adorn the wall - among them you'll find various microlife nestling in its branches and polyps. Within the cavities and crevices on the wall, you'll find colonies of sweetlips, gobies, hawkfish, emperor angelfish, moray eels and coral groupers lurking around. Turtles are a common sight when you're diving Sipadan and this site is no exception; in particular, green turtles and imbricate turtles. Don't be surprised if you come across dozens of ribbontail stingrays as well.

Spend some time watching out towards the open Sipadan sea as well, where you can find schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks, grey reef sharks, and occasionally, if you're lucky, the extremely rare thresher shark, or fox shark. If you do come across it, the thresher shark, with its long upper tail which it uses to beat or thrash its prey, is a difficult sight to miss.

South Point Reef
Basics: Coral heads and steep wall
Depth: 20- >40m / Visibility: 20 - 30m / Water Temperature: 27 - 30�C
Currents: Can be strong / Surface Conditions: Can be choppy
Experience Level: Advanced only

This is a good place to get a bit deeper in the morning as long as you don�t mind a thin layer of narcosis-on-toast for breakfast. South Point is one of the most likely sites for the more rare sharks such as hammerheads and thresher sharks, both of which tend to stay at depths here of forty plus metres.

On this Sipadan dive you will descend down to a ledge and then fin out gently into the blue, scanning the waters for a glimpse of action. If you are lucky enough to encounter hammerhead sharks or threshers you will be the toast of the resort and the object of envy.

Then, often you'll hear them coming nearer, long before you see them. The noise comes through the water like a riot in a school dining room, the enormous bumphead parrotfish grinding and munching the corals for the algae. At 85kg and easily more than one metre long, the fish have humped and scarred heads, small eyes, and jutting teeth-like fused beaks. They excrete white exhaust plumes of pulverised coral sand, like a locomotive train. Watch as they take pizza-sized bites out of the table corals and then march on by.

The wonder of Pulau Sipadan is that visitors get used to countless turtles, white-tips, bump-headed parrotfish and massive schools of other fish, that the crossbar is always raised, and South Point is often the site for the crowning glory.

Turtle Cavern
Basics: Cavern
Depth: 14 - 22m / Visibility: Zero if silt is stirred up, please be careful! / Water Temperature: 26 - 30�C
Currents: Gentle / Surface Conditions: Calm
Experience Level: Advanced Borneo divers only

Turtle cavern is a complicated site with the entrance to the cavern located at about 18 m. Sipadan diving is famous for its population of both green turtles and the smaller hawksbill turtles.

It was at one time speculated that the cavern was their mausoleum and that they came to this site to die. However, a more accurate representation, is that the turtles became lost in the caverns at night and drowned. Sipadan Island�s resort operators insist that all Borneo divers to this system of interconnecting caverns must be accompanied by a local dive master.

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.

RELATED LINKS

Sabah ~ Sipadan Island
The Island - Diving & Marine Life - The Seasons - Getting There