Sipadan Island, MalaysiaI

By Terry Booth / Photo by Charlene Kwan

Jacques Cousteau famously quoted "I have seen other places like Sipadan, 45 years ago, but now no more. Now we have found an untouched piece of art."

Located in the Celebes Sea off the east coast of Sabah, East Malaysia, Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia, an isolated pinnacle rising 600 metres from the seabed.

Times have changed since Jacques donned his primitive self-contained underwater breathing apparatus and for years, divers both novice and experienced have been drawn to this sub-aqua mecca in the hordes.

The subsequent over-diving led to damaged reefs and a marine life that could not cope with the stress caused by too many divers on Sipadan Island. Since 2005 all resorts had to relocate away from Sipadan Island and since April 2006 a strictly enforced permit system was introduced for all divers wanting to dive at Sipadan, limiting the number of divers to just 120 a day from the 12 neighbouring resorts.

The very real threat from the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas (a famous mass kidnapping from Sipadan in 2000) and a slew of regular incidents up and down the Borneo coastline and neighbouring islands has led to bans on night travel and night dives and mandates a permanent military presence on Sipadan and night time guards at the resorts.

But despite this top side turmoil and remote location, divers are not dissuaded by the limited access (typically only one permit per diver every four days of stay) or armed guards. Consistently voted two of the world’s best dives sites, Barracuda Point and The Drop Off, along with the promise of tornados of barracudas and jacks and the swarms of schooling sharks and turtles, lure a stream of eager disciples.

Generally slow drift dives along sheer walls dripping in hard and soft corals, minimal effort is expended whilst gazing at the rich flora and fauna, a magnificent leopard shark serenely gliding by with gentle swishes of its’ elongated tail steals the show. And even for the most jaded diver, witnessing up close the mass congregation of giant bumphead parrot fish is awe inspiring. 

However too often, divers are so focused on going to Sipadan Island that they don’t realize how much the other islands have to offer too. These islands are often treated as “filler songs in an album with one hit single”.

Yes, Sipadan Island is special in that it is an oceanic island while the other islands sit on the continental shelf. So the kind of marine life you see at Sipadan Island will be different from the others. Memorable dives are also had at these islands with an abundance of macro critters, frog and crocodile fish at both Mabul and Kapalai Islands.

With its’ rich history and diverse and impressive marine life it should be obligatory for any serious diver to make the pilgrimage to these holy waters at least once in their lifetime.

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Note: This will be Terry's last article as he is leaving Singapore.