Sipadan Island - A Perfect Place For Scuba Diving

If you are scuba diving and snorkeling lover, Sipadan Island is a perfect place for you. Sipadan Island is the only oceanic island in Malaysia. It is one of the world’s 5 best diving sites. Rising 600 meters from the seabed, Sipadan Island is located in the Celebes Sea east of the major town of Tawau and off the coast of East Malaysia on the Island of Borneo.

This beautiful oceanic island was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone that took thousands of years to develop.

Sipadan is a legend in the diving circles, conjuring the images of patrolling hammerhead sharks, millions of colorful reef fish and, above all, dozens of sea turtles swimming peacefully everywhere. As one of the five top diving destinations in the world, Sipadan, the small rainforest-covered tropical island rising from a 700 meter abyss in the Celebes Sea, is an ultimate diving spot that a committed diver cannot miss.

Pristine coral reefs are also landlord to other reef dwellers such as angelfish, snappers, wrasse, sweet lips, and parrotfish as well as the larger pelagic, barracudas, mantas, whales, dolphins and schools of hammerhead sharks.

Aside from that, there is a mysterious turtle tomb lies underneath the column of the Sipadan Island. The turtle tomb was formed by an underwater limestone cave with a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that contain many skeletal remains of turtles that have become lost and drown before finding the surface.

Currently, the island is in the care of the Malaysian Government under the Wildlife Department. The Wildlife Department has stationed several park rangers to oversee the state of nature of the island in order to protect the world’s unique flora and fauna in the island as well as the underwater world.

However, if you are not into scuba diving or snorkeling this place is not for you because there is nothing much to do in this island except enjoying yourself on the beautiful sandy beaches and watching the coral reef with its rich marine life. And there is no resort and nothing to buy in the island.