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 Kapalai consists of a small sloping reef approximately 15m deep which contains many strange and beautifully ugly critters. Blue ring octopus, mimic octopus, ghost pipefish, wasp fish, and stonefish are just some of the common sights. Everyday at dusk, in the coral rubble adjacent to the Kapalai jetty, mandarin fish perform their nightly mating ritual. Leaf scorpion fish and frogfish of various colors inhabit the sloping reefs on all sides of the islands. Below the shallow sloping reef is a sandy plateau, which is home to five small wreck and a resort chalet. At the base of these wrecks you can find giant stingray, as well as large schools of jack fish and barracuda, along with solitary potato groupers reaching over two meters in length. Also within the wrecks lie many unusual marine invertebrates including orangutan crabs, spider crabs, hyper-colored nudibranchs , and many different species of shrimps. Indeed, Kapalai is an underwater photographers' paradise. |
Kapalai
Kapalai is similar to Mabul, but there is no actual island, only a large sandbank. The most well known dive site there is Manadrin valley, but several of the other dives sites are well worth a visit.
Kapalai, Mandarin Valley: Slope to about 20m. Hard corals, then sand. Small underwater mound. This dive site has its name from a dragonet that can be found there and that has a beautiful color like the clothes of the Chinese mandarins. It lives during the day under the spines of sea urchins. At the small underwater mound - find several leaffish. Leaffish can shed their skin and in such a way adjust to the surrounding reef. There is also a mushroom coral (Heliofungia a.) on the sand with some white anemone pipefish (Siokunichthys n.) living inside. Check it out.
Kapalai, Ray Channel: This is a sandy channel with the reef on one side. The special fish, you find there and nowhere else in Mabul is the dragonfish (Pegasus). This small animal lives in pairs on sand and feeds on invertebrates.
The Jetty: Named the 5th best dive site in the world last year. This is Kapalai house reef and is where the 5 wrecks are located. This dive site offers a good mix of both large pelagic and small critters!
Mid Reef: Go down the ball line to around 25m here the current can be very strong so this is a dive site for the more experienced diver. This dive site is famous for its pigmy seahorses.
Gurnard Point: This dive site lies beside the Police Jetty. At the bottom of the reef lies a small wreck where lives a Giant Frog Fish, and lots of Moray eel! After the wreck dive down the sandy plateau and watch out for many swimming sting Rays as they dart away from the dive group. As the divers go back to the sloping reef you will see the very unusual Flying Gurnard (which looks like a peacock underwater!) A truly unique dive site!!
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Lankayan area : Lankayan Island, lying in the north, close to Sandakan, is a small island with a large choice of dive sites just close by. Most dives are in shallow water and with low visibility, but during March to May whale sharks migrate through the Sulu sea and may visit that area. The island is a great place to relax. Relatively close by is Turtle Island (Pulau Selingan), a turtle sanctuary and hatchery.
Jetty Wreck
This site is an artificial reef, made from the wreck of a small fishing boat, located right in front of the jetty. Just giant stride off the jetty at any time of the day, descend and follow the guide rope to this Lankayan diving wreck. Within minutes of descending into the waters, you'll come across a school of batfish and sometimes a school of jacks as well. The wreck itself it home to a couple of frogfish - you can find them on the rope around the wooded pyramids.
Other life on board are groupers, blue spotted sting rays, cuttlefish , scorpionfish and ghost pipefish . As well as that, within a lone anemone, you'll find a family of anemonefish. Also considered a good location for night diving, nocturnal visits will bring you up against more frogfish and other reef life.
On your return to the jetty, spend some time around the coral encrusted pillars, home to families of beautiful but dangerous common lionfish. They make willing subjects for photographers and the shallow, clear waters are perfect for sharpening your photographic skills.
Mosquito Wreck
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is one of Lankayan Island's three wreck diving sites. The ship was once part of the Mosquito Fleet maintained by the Japanese during World War Two.
The wreck itself has some great items of interest - from the bow gun which still remains intact to other bits and pieces of its original cargo. As for fish life, around the surrounding waters you might come across schools of jacks and barracuda, with the occasional manta ray or even |
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whale sharks .
Lankayan Wreck
Dive down onto a wreck that was once engaged in the odious practice of fish poaching. There is a certain pleasure to be had from the thought of how this craft now harbours all manner of fish whose only imminent worry is being assaulted by the sight of some divers in garishly coloured wetsuits.
This Lankayan diving site is quite a shallow wreck, so is suitable for most levels of divers to peep around at the lurking cardinals, groupers and yellow sea perch. Pay attention here and you will be the first to spot the resident ornate ghost pipefish who calls this wreck home.
Given that macro diving is Lankayan's specialty it is not surprising that the visibility here is not amazing. However it is always worth keeping an eye on the blue for some big stuff passing by. Huge bump-headed parrotfish and barracuda are common as are the mighty whale sharks between March and May.
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Layang Layang (Terumbu Layang Layang) is a small island, only 2 kilometer long, lying about 300 km northwest of Kota Kinabalu in the south China sea. Layang Layang belongs to a group of atolls that make up the Borneo Banks which are part of the Spratlys, some 600 islands, reef and shoals stretching across the South China Sea from Borneo to Vietnam. The island is man-made and was constructed by the Malaysian Navy and then developed for the dive resort. This is quite an exclusive dive resort and can only be reached by small airplane from Kota Kinabalu. All the dive sites are around the atoll, since there are no other islands in the vicinity.
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Layang Layang offers world class diving. Since the ocean floor drops to an amazing 2000 meter from the edge of the atoll, this is a great place for large pelagic fish such as grey reef sharks, white-tip reef sharks, hammerheads as well as large schools of barracudas and mackerels and many turtles. Most of the dives are on steep walls, reefs are pristine and visibility excellent. There is lagoon in the middle of the atoll, about 20m deep for smaller critters. |
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Sharks caves: The dive starts on the edge of the drop off to a sandy ledge where one will find several leopard sharks sleeping. There is a cave which at the entrance is 3m high and slowly narrows to half a meter where white tipped reef sharks rest.
The Valley : This dive site doesn't look like much at first glance, corals broken by the pounding waves and small sandy areas. This is a good place to look for small critters though, gobies, morey eels, shrimps and nudibranchs. Good for macrophotography.
Crack Reef: A shallow coral garden with staghorn corals and a slope which becomes a drop off. The current is not so strong here and there are schools of butterfly fishes, fusiliers and trigger fishes.
Gorgonian Forest : A wall from 15m to 40m with a fair amount of current running parallel to the wall and really good visibility. This is one of the main areas for the scalloped hammerhead sharks (April-May), but it is also a beautiful dive site with a lot of beautiful huge gorgonian sea fans, whip corals and huge sponges. The hammerheads come here in large schools. There are schools of barracudas, jacks, tunas and there are often gray reef sharks and with luck you might even encounter some whale sharks.
Dog-tooth Lair : The name comes from the large dog-tooth tunas which are seen here cruising along the drop-off. Nice coral formations with over-hangs and ledges. On the drop-off even large sunfish (Mola Mola) have been seen and hammerheads schools.
Wreck point: No trace remains of the wreck that gave the name to this dive site. This is a nice place to make the safety stop after diving in Dogtooth Lair, there are a lot of lettuce corals, big sponges and several giant clams. This dive site and the adjoining The Tunnel are also good places for night dives.
D' Wall: A sheer vertical wall with a ledge at about 40m covered with barrel sponges, gorgonians, colonies of sea whip corals, crinoids. Leopard sharks and white tips, grey reef sharks are resting on the ledge or cruising along the wall. Sometimes manta rays and dogtooth tunas are seen here and at the right time of year, large schools of hammerheads.
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Probably the best known dive areas are the islands of Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalay in the northwest of Borneo. I've dived there several times and was always impressed by the huge variety of animals seen there, the diving here is world-class! Around Sipadan the reef drops down spectacularly, huge schools of barracudas, mackerels are seen on nearly every dive, turtles and large sharks abound. Only half an hour by boat from Sipadan are the islands of Mabul and Kapalay. Dive sites here are shallow, but this is an excellent place for so called muck diving! I found several species of frogfishes, a variety of nudibranchs, shrimps, sea horses, special fishes like mandarin fishes, scorpionfishes etc. A great place for macro photography.
Mabul
Mabul offers some of the finest muck diving in the area. Nearly on every dive there are surprises, a rare or strange looking species of fish or invertebrate, hidden crabs, nudibranchs or cuttlefishes.
Mabul, Crocodile Avenue: Flat sandy area from 5m to 20m. Remains of some palmtrees. It is a sandy area, so there are empty stretches of sand with oases of life. The absolute record were 8 seahorses found. Then there are sand eels, double-ended pipefish,crocodilefish,special tube anemones, ghostpipefish (Harlekin- and Seagrass-), cowfish etc. You can see turtles, humpback parrotfish, barracudas, mackerels and a small eagle ray there. Night dives are also very good there. One of the highlights is a small boxer crab.
Mabul, Seaventure Platform: Flat sandy area on about 17m. Some coral blocks, pillars of concrete, piles of metal rods. This is a old oil platform that has been converted into a hotel. You dive underneath in 17m of water (Deco after more than 60min dive!). An amazing dive site! There are several piles of metal rods, look close, and there are always several frogfish (yellow to red, black and gray) sitting on them. Inside the largest pile there is a huge moray eel. His head must have a diameter of about 15cm! You can find: ghostpipefish (Harlekin and seagrass), waspfish, nudibranchs (Halgerda,Cromodoris etc.), stonefish, flying gunard and close to the pillars always lots of batfish and flutefish.
Mabul, Lobster Wall: Wall, some small caverns. Lot's of hydroids. The place is not that nice to look at, but it is again a place for many nudibranchs, anemones, shrimps and babycowfish. Great nightdives.
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Probably the best known dive areas are the islands of Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalay in the northwest of Borneo. The diving there is world-class! Around Sipadan the reef drops down spectacularly, huge schools of barracudas, mackerels are seen on nearly every dive, turtles and large sharks abound. Only half an hour by boat from Sipadan are the islands of Mabul and Kapalay. Dive sites there are shallow, but this is an excellent place for so called muck diving! You can find several species of frogfishes, a variety of nudibranchs, shrimps, sea horses, special fishes like mandarin fishes, scorpionfishes etc. A great place for macro photography.
Sipadan
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Sipadan is a small island, covered with rain forest. It is the peak of a steep underwater mountain which lies quite isolated, seperated from the continental shelf by deep water (probably over 1000m deep). Most of the dives are on steep walls with ledges at various depths with a larger shelf at around 30m. There is a famous cave (turtle cavern) which has stalagmites and stalactites growing inside and which is the tomb of turtles which haven't found their way back out. |
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Sipadan jetty / drop-off: Steep wall with overhangs. If you stay at Sipadan you can jump right off the jetty and there is one of the nicest dive sites right there. You always encounter large schools of fish like mackerels or barracudas or groups of batfish.
Turtle cavern: Some meter to the right of the jetty is also the entrance to a large cave. Without a certificate in cave diving (most dive operators offer cave diving courses) you can't go inside. If you make a nightdive, be cautious not to dive down to the level of the cave (18m), you might enter it by mistake.
Sipadan South Point: Steep wall, ledge and then drop-off. On this dive site you might see a group of hammerhead sharks there at about 55m depth.
Sipadan Barracuda point: Wall, then flat valley on about 20m. The dive site has suffered some though, and there are a lot of broken corals because it is the dive site everybody wants to go. Large schools of barracuda consisting of several hundreds animals nearly always hover there, forming huge spirals, which become vortices and form high walls. If you don't make any abrupt movements and keep level in the water you might end up in the middle of a circular wall of huge adult barracudas. An exhilarating feeling! Currents can be strong there at times with down currents possible.
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