Diving Sipadan

Greetings from the Sulu Sea! 

After a few weeks in Kuala Lumpur full of Rotary activities and, gasp...applying for jobs so I have something to do upon my return to America, I set off for another quick adventure with my two Japanese roommates. 

We flew to Tawau, Sabah and hopped a ride to the coastal town of Semporna which was our base for two days of wonderful scuba diving.  Sabah is in East Malaysia, know more to the rest of the world as Boreno.  In Malaysia they refer to this area as East Malaysia because the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak only comprise less than half of the island of Borneo.  The bottom half of Borneo is the Indonesian state of Kalimantan and the small country of Brunei is also tucked in. 

We spotted a Rotary billboard in Tawau!

About to enjoy a seafood dinner on a nice evening in Semporna

Sipadan is a small island off the coast from Semporna and is touted as one of the top dive sites in the world.  The island formation rises 600 meters from the sea floor and was created by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone.  Shaped like a mushroom with a small island forming the dome, vertical sea cliffs drop off dramatically just meters from shore.  This beautiful island and underwater world was highlighted by Jacques Cousteau’s film Ghost of the Sea Turtles.      

I can see why Jacques Cousteau liked Sipadan Island

This island has a very unique history; there used to be five resorts on the island but in the year 2000 21 people (10 dive tourists and 11 resort staff) were kidnapped by Filipino pirates.  They were held for more than a year and slowly ransomed off for millions of dollars.  Our dive master told us he was working on the island during that time but happened to be leading a night dive when the kidnapping occurred.  He and his group surfaced when they finished their dive but heard people yelling “pirates!” from the shore so they quietly re-submerged and hid in a shallow area of the reef for two more hours before resurfacing to safety.  The island was also part of a territorial land dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia for many years until it was officially declared part of Malaysia by the International Court of Justice in 2002. 

In 2004, under pressure from conservation groups and others, the Malaysian government ordered all on-site dive operators to remove their structures from the island and operate from someplace else.  I assume that after the kidnappings, there probably weren’t many visitors that came for more than day trips anyways.  To further reduce impacts on the marine environment, only 120 permits per day are issued to visit the island which includes divers, snorkelers, and guides.  This means you definitely need to plan ahead if you want to dive there, and pay the price.  Many backpack type travelers show up only to be disappointed that permits may be booked out for weeks or months. 

Although I have only been diving in a few other areas before Sipadan (namely Koh Tao, Thailand and Roatan, Honduras), I believe the diving here lived up to its hype.  The diversity and abundance of plants and animals was amazing, and the underwater geography was mind blowing.  Literally vertical sea wall cliffs dropping off for hundreds of meters, never ending as you looked up and down!  We encountered sea turtles, reef sharks, and HUGE schools of fish including barracudas.  It was crazy being faced with and surrounded by walls of fish.  Diving at this location was definitely a memorable experience and worth the journey and logistics to get there.  My roommate Tomomi had an underwater housing for her camera so I can't help but share many of the great shots: