SIPADAN: Borneo's Underwater Paradise-by Star Morris
Third time lucky ... to afford the opportunity to return, in just two and
a half years, to Sipadan ... a diver's paradise,!
Most people have no idea where that is ... and very few maps are detailed
enough to mark Sipadan's position. Located 5 degrees north of the equator,
off the north east coast of Borneo, it's the only oceanic island in Malaysia.
The island itself is the tip of a precipitous sea-mountain, an isolated
column of volcanic rock rising defiantly from the sea floor. On the
island's landward side, it is separated from the edge of the Continental
Shelf by a trough 1,000 meters deep, while on the seaward side the reef
drops off in a 2,000 meter contour. The living reef occupies only the top
50 meters of the mount ... a little more than the limits of recreational
diving!
On this trip there were a group of about 20 of us who, for the most part,
worked and met in Saudi Arabia. Eight of us were returnees and the rest,
first timers. Getting there ... quite an ordeal ... but worth it! For
me,
it took 36 hours from Squamish to paradise! The 18 hour long flight from
Vancouver to Kuala Lampur, with a short stop in Taipei ... and then joined
by some friends from Australia for the rest of the trip ... a 4 hours
flight to Kota Kinabalu, 4 hour wait to catch a 50 minute flight to Tawau,
a two hour bus ride to Semporna and finally a 45 minute speed boat ride
to
Sipadan!
As soon as we arrived, off came the shoes ... never to be put on again
until leaving, 12 days later! Refreshments and snacks were served while
our accommodations were assigned, certifications and experience were
confirmed and liability waivers signed. Then, less than 2 hours after
arriving, we were in the water for our check-out dive. This is the only
mandatory dive, and is not a boat dive ... but then it's only a fifteen
meter walk to "drop off", the point on the wall from which there
is
unlimited shore diving! Our group, being all returnees, didn't require
a
divemaster for the check out dive. To avoid a crowd, we decided to go the
opposite direction from the rest of the group ... nice drift dive going
out
...but strong current coming back ... good warm up! More about the diving
shortly.
Accommodations are quaint and private, with two or three to a cabin. The
cabins are made of wood with thatched roofs and wooden shutters. Ceiling
fans keep you comfortable during those warm humid times. Each cabin has
it's own toilet, sink and shower ... great to have a nice hot shower after
your dives! Porches at the front provide a nice place to kick back, read
a
book, fill out your log book, or if you're lucky enough to have a cabin
on
the water, enjoy a glass of wine, while the sun sets and waves soothingly
lap up on the beach. Most of the cabins are raised off the ground ...
nightly, Hawksbill and Green sea turtles make their way up on the beach
to
lay their eggs, sometimes right under the cabins, but they usually prefer
the unlit areas of the beach.
The divers are put into groups of no more than ten and are assigned a
divemaster. Each day there are three boat dives and unlimited access to
beach diving. The maximum time to a dive site on a boat dive is five
minutes and the beach diving is just 15 meters off shore. Your tanks,
BCD's and regs are set up before each dive and then taken off the boat,
disassembled and rinsed in fresh water after each dive, by the staff.
Large tubs of fresh water are also provided to rinse all your personal gear
after each dive. The unlimited shore diving affords divers the opportunity
to check out the undersea paradise on sunrise, sunset and night dives.
The diving ... where do I begin? I guess the best place is at the
foundation of it all ... the reef itself. On the top 50 meters of the
seamount, hard and soft corals, gigantic sea fans and countless varieties
of sea-squirts and sponges form a glorious garden of color and life. Each
diving site around the island has it's own unique features. The Hanging
Garden, appropriately named, displays spectacular soft corals that appear
to be in full bloom when feeding and droop like ferns when the current is
slack. At West Ridge, large bushes of black coral look like bushes that
have fallen from the land into the sea. On a typical dive here, we would
see S&T's of course (sharks and turtles), trumpet fish, baby sweet lips,
large groupers and Napolean wrass, lion fish, blue masked puffers and
anemones. Barracuda Point was always a favorite destination.
With stronger currents, it was a favorite site for the large schools of
barracuda. One of the most awesome, but intimidating experiences was
swimming underneath a school of over a thousand circling barracuda and then
coming up the center of the tornadoing school. White tip and gray reef
sharks are also seen resting on the bottom here, frequently being tended
to
by cleaning wrass. It wouldn't be a complete dive to Barracuda Point
without seeing the garden eels ... colonizing areas of the sea bed, they
congregate in garden like formations waving in the current. Schools of
surgeon fish with long blue tenacles, and bigeye trevally cruise the area.
Schools of bat fish are often seen, and single bat fish in tow behind
swimming turtles. So I later learned, the bat fish is like the clean up
crew for the turtles' waste. Well camouflaged scorpion fish, octopi, morey
eels and leaf fish were always a find for those with a keen eye. The South
Point dives were quite often described as 'aquarium dives'! Beautiful
schools of angel fish and ... my favorite ... fusiliers. Coral faced titon
trigger fish became very aggressive, while the clown trigger fish just went
about their business. A large mantis shrimp was sighted, lots of anemones
and accompanying clown fish, powder blue sea stars, a black lion fish, big >
file fish, some Spanish dancer eggs ... and S&T's of course! Fire gobies,
hawk fish, box fish, Christmas tree tube worms, porcupine fish,
nudibranchs, blue fin tunas and banner fish were also seen frequently on
dives. Leopard sharks were frequently seen cruising in this site. Coral
Gardens always provide a impressive display of soft and hard coral teaming
with a host of colorful juvenile fish and turtles of course. Turtle Patch,
as you would presume, was a place to be entertained by turtles ... some
sleeping, some feeding, some scratching, some touring ... and even some
'turtle riding', the only kind of turtle riding allowed on the island.
Our
first (deep) dive of the day was quite often in search of the hammerhead
sharks. We had seen a school of hammerheads on a previous trip to the
Sipadan, two years earlier, but they eluded us on this trip. Apparently
they hadn't been seen in the area for several months. Speculation is that
the waters are too warm ... a result of global warming.
As the shades of night fall, Sipadan's underwater paradise is transformed
As you descend the wall at Drop Off, you're immediately greeted by giant
humphead parrot fish which come up to seek refuge, underneath the shelf,
for the night. The wall comes alive with crustaceans ... as our night
lights reflect off the eyes of shrimp and decorator crabs are picked up
by
keen eyed divers.
An abundance of sea stars ... brittles, cushion and pin-cushions, bright
reds, dark maroons and corn flower blues... some up to 2 feet in diameter.
We also encountered a bizarre looking slipper lobster. A colorful display
of giant clams, thorny and cocks-comb oysters can be seen with their shells
open and gills displayed as they sit feeding. Morey eels, lion fish and
sleeping turtles are always to be found ... not to forget "Fred"
a huge,
lone barracuda who is frequently seen hovering vertically along the wall
at
Drop Off.
Not everything we saw was beautiful! Changes in the two years since we
were previously on Sipadan were evident on almost every dive. Sipadan,
infrequently hit by big storms had fallen victim to the tail end of a
tropical storm 10 months earlier. A lot of the fragile staghorn coral and
other parts of the reef had been damaged. But more alarming than the coral
damage was the amount of coral that was bleached, the number of anemones
that were turning white with just the tips colored, and the absence of
hammerhead sharks ... all as a result of the increase in water temperature,
global warming! All the article you read can never have the same impact
as
witnessing the devastating effects for yourself.
Three months prior to arriving, Sipadan Palau Resort opened an extension
of
their resort on Kapalai. Kapalai is a 15 minute boat ride from Sipadan
and
is essentially a sand bar surrounded by a large reef on the continental
shelf. The resort itself has been built on a wharf ... a paradise on
stilts! We spent one night and two days here ... if I were to go back I
would reserve Kapalai and take day trips to do deeper, wall diving on
Sipadan. There are 7 cabins completed with a maximum of 10 more to be
built in the next 3 years. Each cabin has a spectacular view from all four
sides and a deck extending along the back. The bathrooms of the cabins are
large with separate showers and tubs. As you soak in the tub, large
shutters on the windows can be opened so you can relax, enjoy the view and
sip on a glass on wine. From our deck we enjoyed a display of sea urchins,
corals, schools of needle fish, colorful sea stars and even an anemone with
the biggest clown fish I have ever seen (about 5" long). The food,
as on
Sipadan, was always freshly prepared and tasted great ... lots of sea food,
rice dishes, fresh fruit (sweetest little bananas and pineapple) and
vegetables. They even cater to vegetarians and are always open to
suggestions for variations in the meal plans.
The diving around Kapalai is a mecca for macro photographers. The maximum
depths on the dives was 60 feet. Unlike Sipadan, lots of long spiny sea
urchins and on the odd occasion we were able to spot the beautiful tiny
mandarin fish hiding in amongst the spines of the sea urchins. A number
of
camouflaged scorpion and stone fish, but mostly crocodile fish.. Lots
of
varieties of eel were found as well as various puffers, porcupine, jaw
fish, yellow box fish and trumpet fish. Some of the most bizarre looking
fish were the cuddle fish, frog fish, cow fish and razor fish. We saw
schools of highly venomous juvenile cat fish. There were a number of
juvenile versions of the fish seen around Sipadan ... bat fish, lion fish,
trigger fish and, my favorite, the frilly baby sweet lips. We even managed
to spot a sea horse, about four inches high. One of the best dives was
at
a site called Sting Ray City. There was an abundance of beautiful soft
and
hard coral of all varieties. Lots of fish, nudibranchs, sea cucumbers and,
as the name would suggest, blue spotted rays everywhere.
As our trip was coming to an end, our gear drying out on our cabin deck
the
night before we were start the long journey home, we laid out on the deck
lounge chairs. As we gazed skyward, the sky full of stars, the milky way
clearly visible, we reflected back on our trip realizing that heaven is
truly beneath our seas, as well as above our heads!
For more information on diving trips to Sipadan check out the web site
address at www.sipadan-resort.com.
Star Morris