Sipadan Island, Borneo, Malaysia Oct 15-16, 2009

Sipadan Island

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Giant Clams

Monitor Lizard & Malboro

A white tipped reef shark, Sipadan Island.

Swimming through a school of Jackfish.

Turtles!!

Sipadan, the prettiest aquarium you'll ever swim in.

Jackfish and Peoplefish.

Me, and a Green Turtle, Sipadan Island, Borneo, Sabah, Malaysia

“I have seen other places like Sipadan, 45 years ago, but now no more. Now we have found again an untouched piece of art…a jewel.”--Jacques Cousteau

The island of Sipadan lies 5 degrees north of the equator in the Sulawesi Sea (Celebes Sea). It is an oceanic island that was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct undersea volcano that rises 600m from the seabed. The geographic position of Sipadan puts it in the center 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.

Yellow Trumpet Fish

Yellow Masked Angelfish

Moorish Idol

Diving Sipadan requires booking a permit way in advance because only 120 divers are allowed on Sipadan per day. It is well worth it! I dived Sipadan two days in a row. The first time I jumped off the boat and into the water I kept saying “wow” repeatedly, out loud, and through my regulator! I had never in my life seen so many and such varied fish.

Nudibranch (Varicose Wart Slug)

Clownfish

There was also this massive wall of coral that dropped vertically down into an unknown abyss. It was too easy to lose track of how deep we were because there was no visible floor and having a vertical wall of coral instead of a floor made it feel as though we were constantly free-falling. It was amazing!

The Vertical Wall of Coral

My favorite were the turtles—there were loads of them, swimming gracefully and peacefully through the waters. There were also small schools of white-tipped sharks—although they were small, and I knew they weren’t known to be dangerous to humans, they still looked like Jaws to me and I confess I was a little nervous to get too close. When I finally started feeling more at ease with the creatures I began to follow one to get a closer look, it made a sharp and unexpected turn and started swimming toward me and I nearly jumped out of my skin!

Harlequin Sweetlips

Stonefish-the most poisonous fish in the world.

Lionfish, a pretty poisonous fish too.