|  Sipadan
Island
The internationally famous island of Sipadan lies five degrees north
of the equator in the Sulawesi Sea (Celebes Sea). Lying 35km south
of Semporna, on Sabah’s mainland, like many tropical islands it
is thicky forested and surrounded by sandy beaches. Sipadan is an
oceanic island and was formed by living corals growing on top of
an extinct undersea volcano, which rises 600m from the seabed.
The geographic position of Sipadan puts it in the center of the
richest marine habitat in the world, the heart of the Indo-Pacific
basin. More that 3000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species
have been classified in this richest of ecosystems. Sipadan is well
known for its unusually large numbers of green and hawksbill turtles
which gather there to mate and nest and its is not unusual for a
diver to see more then 20 turtles on each dive. Another unique feature
to divers visiting Sipadan is the turtle tomb, an underwater limestone
cave a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that contain many skeletal
remains of turtles that become disoriented and the drowned.
The residential schooling barracuda and big-eye trevally are one
of the highlights on every divers wish-list which often gather in
thousands forming spectacular tornado-like formations. With the
possibility of seeing pelagics such as mantas, eagle rays, scalloped
hammerhead sharks and whale sharks, each dive at Sipadan is a highly
anticipated event.
Its not only the big fish that amaze divers coming to Sipadan, the
macro life is equally mesmerizing. Garden eels, leaf scorpionfish,
amntis shrimp, fire gobies and various pipefish are guaranteed at
various dive sites. The diversity and abundance of marine life found
at Sipadan gives it its reputation of being one of the ten best
dive locations in the world. There are now six resorts (Abdillah
Sipadan Paradise, Borneo Diver & Sea Sports, Borneo Sea Adventure,
Pulau Bajau’s, Pulau Sipadan Resort and Sipadan Dive Centre) on
Sipadan and the number of guests staying at each resort has been
restricted to protect the reef and marine life.
In fact a diver may find many rare or endangered sea creatures such
as green and hawksbill turtles, napoleon wrasse giant clams as well
as countless species of sharks and school of thousands of barracuda
and jacks. Sabah is not only known for its reef’s larger inhabitants
but also as a “Muck Diving” paradise with such rarities as the mimic
octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, mandarinfish, harlequin ghost pipefish
plus many types of weird and wonderful frogfish and nudibranchs.
These underwater delights are not restricted to the certified diver;
snorkelers and hopefully divers may enroll in one of the many PADI
affiliated dive courses run at any of Sabah’s dive resorts. Whatever
your underwater wish, Sabah’s seas and coral reefs can easily fulfill
and surpass your wildest dream.
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