Sipidan anyone?

[Scuba Susie]

Hey there,
Posted this last week before the site crashed. Just wanting any info on diving Sipidan. We are going in May and staying on Mabul. We are really looking forward to it too. We are using Smart Divers on Mabul. Ever been there? Got any cool tips?
Thanks
Susie

 

[the_cat_keeper]

Hi Susie,

I've just gone to Sipadan-Mabul-Kapalai. We stayed on a decommissioned oil rig in Mabul that is now used by Seaventures. Most of our dives were at Mabul. The Seaventures house reef has lots of stuff to see (scorpionfish, frog fish, flatheads, lionfish, beautiful nudibranches, anemone shrimps, etc, etc). Unfortunately the viz probably averaged around 3 to 5 metres. When we were there, the current on the surface was quite strong. The Lobster Wall was also interesting.

I was a bit disappointed when I first descended at Paradise in Mabul... there was just sand and poor viz (abt 5 to 10m) but after a while, we found the harlequin ghost pipefish, cleaner shrimp, hingebeak shrimps, huge turtles with remora, lionfish, flounders, squat lobster in feather stars, eels, etc etc. Oh yes, and folks go to Paradise during the evening for the mandarin fish (they mate around 5 - 6pm and this would be the time to catch them on film).

At Sipadan, we dived at South point, Barracuda point and a turtle cave. Saw lots of turtles and in particular at South point, there were white tips everywhere. Also saw large schools of jacks, some trevallies, sweetlips and barracudas. The turtle cave seems like a turtle cemetary. I guess it could be interesting but although the cave is not that small, I felt a little claustrophic in there. It was total darkness in there. Viz was about 20+m at these dive sites.

We only went to Jason rock and Cleaning Station at Kapalai. Both dive sites were nice. Viz was average here too. About 10 to 15m.

My dive comp logged 26 - 27degC for the water temperature.

Hope this helps.

 

[Abopp]

Hi Susie

I was diving in Sipidan around May time last year and it completely blew my mind. Of course, as you would expect, there were some pretty "average" dives too, but out of the 5 days that I stayed in Sipidan, I had about 4 completely blow me away dives when I came up just wanting more and more!! There was one dive (I can't remember the names - PM me if you want me to check my log book) when we saw a couple of hammerhead sharks swimming right up to us....before the rest of our group scared them away by swimming towards them. One of the other dives sites is like a big underwater valley, white tips all over the place, garden eels and just beautiful and incredibly interesting underwater landscape. One of the dives that we did at the Hanging Gardens (wall dive) was like a a turtle launching station. Turtles were just launching themselves out of nooks and crannies in the walls all around us. It was really really beautiful!!

Then of course there is the whole macro scene at Mabul...also incredibly enjoyable. In fact the site under the sea ventures resort is alot of fun. There are a few frogfish hanging around there, amongst other random critters! The thing about macro diving is that you have to be good at looking for macro life yourself or be with a group of divers who are all diciplined enough not to kick up all the silt and to have a look and move away to give others a chance! Sometimes that's easier said than done!

The water temperature was much warmer when i was there - more like 29decC...I think...as I said, PM me if you want more info!

Have a fantastic time - I dived around Asia for about 3 months and Sipidan was one of my favourite places...would love to go back!

A

 

[Mark Goodchild]

Not too much to add here....

A friend of mine went a couple of years back when the turtles were at their most prolific and enjoyed the week. I think that was August although I'm not 100%. The visibility was not as good as expected although around Sipadan it was pretty good.

Travel guide can be viewed here for some general Sabah information.

http://www.zerovisibility.co.uk/Sabah feature.htm

Hope this is of some help.

 

[Scuba Susie]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all the helpful info. I am really looking forward to our trip to Sipadan/Mabul/Kapalai. Just wondering if anyone out there has done those islands with SMART divers?
Interesting reading on the ettiquette of divers in that region of late. Some people just have so little respect for nature! It's appaling! You wouldn't think of going up and riding a deer or a bob cat in the wild and yet some divers think it's perfectly ok to try and ride a turtle! Disgusting! I really hope I don't witness any of that behavior as I might have to shut off someone's air, when they are not looking!
Susie

 

[hiddenaughty]

Latest news about Sipadan >>> MUST SEE
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=34847

 

[omnio]

For anyone who has been there recently, do you concur with this article?

 

[dive_lover88]

Is that true?? tell me that i'm not hearing it wrongly!! :dropmouth Though i 've never been there before,to me sipadan is a haven to divers!! I believe that Malaysia shld put marine coast guards there to patrol the area, at least protect the marine lives and perserve the haven!!

 

[omnio]

Response to the article.

http://www.earthdive.com/front_end/news/newsdetail.asp?id=1109

 

[ScubaJoel]

For anyone who has been there recently, do you concur with this article?

Hm, recently ... means we left 2nd of January (and I have been there in May last year)
Just when Sipadan was closed - but I really can't imagine its getting worse like this.

Personel I think this article is somehow over the top. I read the respons "Dynamite fishing claims in Sipadan refuted" recently and I trust it much more.

There might be other reasons, why I the barracudas are not there. They are not all the time there (Barracuda point), of course not. I did 40+ dives around Sipadan and never saw them. In december another group saw them, but we were at the wrong spot.

Sometime we had 20+ turtels in a dive, depending on time, and sometimes only three - this means nothing. If you get up early your experiencend DM will know where to meet the Humphead Parrots as well.

I never experienced floating plastic bags around Sipadan and I wonder why now, where no divers are on Sipadan anymore, this should changed to bad. The locals and the rangers which are left on Sipadan throw them into the sea? Or the divers suddently do? No, they are washed from somewhere - maybe from closeby Mabul or Semporna - I agree.

BTW: and yes, sometimes you can hear bombing at Sipadan as well as you can even hear it louder at Lankayan. The Phillipines are not very far away.