Malaysia’s Sipadan Island: An Environmental Success Story

It was a classic case of hit and run. The place: Sipadan Island, Malaysian Borneo. I was down 50 feet, just off the wall, and setting up a shot of this gorgeous, swirling school of trevally when--THUMP!—I was hit from behind with the force of an NFL linebacker.

Text and Photos by Sandy Sondrol

It was a classic case of hit and run.
The place: Sipadan Island, Malaysian Borneo. I was down 50 feet, just off the wall, and setting up a shot of this gorgeous, swirling school of trevally when--THUMP!—I was hit from behind with the force of an NFL linebacker.

Startled, I spun around to find myself staring at the wizened face and weathered shell of a VW-sized green turtle who seemed as surprised by the collision as I was. As the turtle corrected its course and continued slowly toward the edge of the wall, I understood the score. On this tiny island in the remote

Celebes Sea, turtles are so large, so abundant and so unchallenged, they have no idea that anything, including a diver, would not simply get out of the way.

Shaking off the collision, I fired off a few frames of the lumbering creature before turning my attention back to the school of jacks, concluding that a mild fender bender with Mother Nature was a very small price to pay for this much diving enjoyment.

Saving Sipadan
Sipadan is a tiny speck of land, only about the size of eight football fields, topped with a dense green jungle and ringed with a picturesque white sand beach. Underwater, it’s surrounded by vertical walls that start in 15 feet of water and drop off to a bottom at around 2,000 feet. The structure is hard corals, with soft corals sprouting off the sides, and the reef habitat attracts dense schools of fish in addition to turtles. Lots and lots of turtles.

This wasn’t the case just five years ago when the island was home to six dive resorts. The Malaysian government realized the resorts were having a negative effect on the island’s ecosystem, including the turtle nesting areas, and took drastic action.  They gave the resort operators six months notice and then moved them entirely off the island. The only occupants today are a few government rangers and a small contingent of Malaysian soldiers.

When the time came to leave, most resorts moved to the island of Mabul, which is a 20-minute boat ride away. Sipadan began to re-emerge as turtle and fish habitat extraordinaire, with spectacular schools of trevally and barracuda, plenty of white tip reef sharks and a supporting cast of smaller reef fish in addition to abundant turtle populations. The turn-around has been so successful that the island has been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and in spite of limits on the number of divers allowed to visit each day, Sipadan remains the premier dive attraction for the region. During the arrival briefing, our guide confidently guaranteed us at least 20 turtle sightings per dive at Sipadan, and he was right. It soon became a chore to even keep count.

Home Sweet Mabul
Between visits to Sipadan, divers can enjoy boat dives on a series of mini walls that ring Mabul, topping out in just 15 to 25 feet of water. Visibility is typically in the 50- to 75-foot range, and there are fairly strong currents running along the walls, so we drifted along, checking out what was hiding in the nooks and crannies of the reef. We didn’t see many big critters--the largest for me was a 2-foot crocodile fish--but the little guys were great fun to stalk with my camera.

For photographers who prefer to shoot macro, most resorts also offer unlimited “muck diving” right off the beach. The “muck” is really pea-sized, white gravel interspersed with small branching corals, ideal habitat for finding colorful pygmy sea horses and those beautiful, but elusive, Mandarin fish.

Topside, Mabul isn’t much bigger than Sipadan. During our stay, I walked around the entire island in about an hour.  In addition to five resorts, there is a small village including a school and regional police barracks. Throughout the five days that we stayed on Mabul, there were many opportunities to meet and interact with the villagers, who were extremely friendly and eager to share their island with guests. Since Malaysia was a British Colony until the mid-1960s, English is widely spoken. Wherever I went, my greeting of “Hello” was always met with a pleasant “Hello” in return and a welcoming smile.

Most of the island’s resorts were built new after the move from Sipadan, and some took the opportunity to proactively safeguard the island ecosystem. Borneo Divers, the resort where we stayed, even built a sanitary sewer system including a waste treatment plant that also serves the needs of the village.

Parting Shots
On our last morning of diving, we returned to Sipadan for some early morning dives. The boat left before sunrise so that we would be in the water just as the sun came up. As we got settled in on a site named Barracuda Point, out of the darkness came a parade of several hundred huge green bumphead parrotfish. These five-foot-long monsters sleep on the shallow water reef in a massive school. As the sun rises, the school moves in unison out toward the edge of the wall where the fish disperse and spend the day doing whatever it is that bumphead wrasse do.

The effect was startling. The bumpheads surged like a thundering herd of buffalo as they came toward us. I hunkered down behind a coral head and started shooting as they brushed past me, ignoring the flash of my strobe and hardly moving aside to keep from slamming into me. Like a waterfall of fish, they just kept coming and coming. As the school trailed off, I turned to watch the last of the bumpheads disappear over the edge of the wall and paused to admire the scene.  What a remarkable end to a remarkable dive trip. This was my first trip to Sipadan, and thanks to proactive conservation efforts, it certainly won’t be my last.

Topside Malaysia
While diving Sipadan is the highlight of any Malaysia trip, you don’t want to travel halfway around the world and not see the topside attractions of a destination as exotic as Malaysia.

Our trip was arranged by dive wholesaler Scuba Travel Ventures, and included five days of topside tours, starting with terrestrial parks and wildlife sanctuaries on Borneo. After leaving Mabul, we took a bus across the island to reach the next portion of our trip: the Sepilok Nature Resort, an eco-lodge beside the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary.  We arrived late in the afternoon and that night we were treated to a trek through the rainforest, before spending the next morning at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center.

Since orangutans are solitary creatures, and very difficult to find in the wild, the only reasonable place to see them up close and personal is at a rehabilitation center.  They are brought in, usually as orphaned babies, and spend several years with other orangutans growing up and learning to survive. This particular center is at the edge of a large preserve and the older orangutans “graduate” into the preserve in a natural maturing process.

Our next stop was the Kinabatangan River, home to a population of proboscis monkeys. The monkeys get their name from their distinctive noses--the males have broad, cylindrical noses and the females have very pointed ones. They live along the river banks and are most easily seen from a boat. The journey also offers a glimpse at a vast array of rainforest birds including eagles, hornbills, egrets, herons and kingfishers.

Our last stop was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s bustling capital city. The city is modern and appealing. The downtown area is an exotic mix of English colonial architecture and modern high rise buildings, including some of the tallest buildings in the world. Dining was great, and a walk through the Chinese market is not to be missed.

Travel Details
Getting there: The primary routes to Malaysia depart the U.S. from Los Angeles International (LAX).  Your final destination is the town of Tawau (TWU), on the Island of Borneo, Malaysia, but there will be an intermediate stop in Kota Kinabalu (BKI), which is the regional capital and where you will clear customs and immigration. There are multiple airlines flying this route, so connections are easy and relatively inexpensive. We flew on Malaysia Airlines and our route – Los Angeles to Taipei to Kota Kinabalu to Tawau—came to 24 hours total travel time (19 in the air; 5 in airports). You must have a passport valid for at least six months after your scheduled departure from Malaysia, but there are no visa requirements for U.S. and Canadian citizens.

Getting around: When we reached Tawau, Borneo Divers had vans waiting to pick us up at the airport. The van ride was about 90 minutes, followed by a boat trip on one of Borneo Divers’ transport boats out to Mabul.
Currency: The currency is the Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) and the value fluctuates relative to the U.S. Dollar, but the practical exchange rate is typically around 1 MYR = .35 USD (For current values see: http://www.xe.com/ucc/). Your resort might accept U.S. dollars, but don’t count on that option as there have been problems with counterfeit U.S. currency surfacing in Malaysia, particularly $100 bills. Credit cards are honored at hotels and resorts, but everywhere else you’ll need Ringgits.

Power: Malaysia operates on 220-volt electricity with standard United Kingdom (UK) 3-prong plugs. Many hotels and resorts have adapters available for loan, but not transformers. If using sensitive electronics, bring your own.

Language: Malaysia is a former English colony and English is widely spoken both at resorts and in villages.
Dive Conditions: Sipadan and Mabul are located 6 degrees north of the Equator, so expect water temperatures of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. The islands are swept by steady, predictable currents and diving is conducted “live boat” style where the crew follows the bubble trail. Visibility is usually 100 feet or more. No special gear or training is necessary to dive here.
For more info: Tourism Malaysia: www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my; Scuba Travel Ventures:  www.scubatravelventures.com; Borneo Divers:  www.borneodivers.info ; Sepilok Nature Resort: www.sepilok.com.

BIO

Raised beside a lake in Iowa,  Sandy Sondrol grew up a self-described “water rat,” and made his first dives in the mid-1960s. In 1994, he left his law practice and moved to Grand Cayman to become a dive instructor and boat captain for Bob Soto’s. After nearly 10 years in Cayman, it was back to the states to join Nekton live-aboards for three years. He later became the associate publisher of Dive Chronicles, and today works as a full-time freelance writer and photographer. He holds a USCG 500-ton captain’s license with 4,000-plus days at sea and is a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer with nine specialties and more than 4,500 dives. You can see more of his work at: www.sandysondrol.com.