The internationally famous island of Sipadan lies five degrees
north of the equator in the Sulawesi Sea (Celebes Sea). Lying 35km south of
Semporna, on Sabah's mainland, like many tropical islands it is thickly forested
and surrounded by sandy beaches. Sipadan is an oceanic island and was formed by
living corals growing on top of an extinct undersea volcano, which rises 600m
from the seabed.
The geographic position of Sipadan puts it in the centre of the richest marine
habitat in the world, the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin. More than 3000
species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in this
richest of ecosystems. Sipadan is well known for its unusually large numbers of
green and hawksbill turtles which gather there to mate and nest and it is not
unusual for a diver to see more then 20 turtles on each dive. Another unique
feature to divers visiting Sipadan is the turtle tomb, an underwater limestone
cave with a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that contain many skeletal remains
of turtles that became disoriented and then drowned.
The residential schooling barracuda and big-eye trevally, which
often gather in thousands forming spectacular tornado-like formations, are one
of the highlights on every diver's wish-list. With the possibility of seeing
pelagic species such as mantas, eagle rays, scalloped hammerhead sharks and
whale sharks, each dive at Sipadan is a highly anticipated event.
It is not only the big fish that amaze divers coming to Sipadan, the macro life
is equally mesmerizing. Garden eels, leaf scorpion fish, mantis shrimps, fire
gobies and various pipefish are guaranteed at various dive sites. The diversity
and abundance of marine life found at Sipadan gives it its reputation of being
one of the ten best dive locations in the world.
The Government of Malaysia has decided that all existing onsite dive resort
operators are to move their operations out of Sipadan Island by 31st December
2004. The move is mainly to conserve and maintain a balanced marine and land
eco-systems on Sipadan and its environs. Diving will continue in Sipadan for
divers to be ferried in by operators operating from the mainland or nearby
islands other than the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan.
