Sipadan | Meet Malaysia
2. The Dive Resort
Thankfully, Mabul is protected by its own reef and the water surrounding the island is quite calm. We come to a nice, easy stop at the jetty and my sweaty hands pass a few bills to the boat captain.
I’m staying at Borneo Divers Mabul Resort.
Borneo Divers Mabul Resort.
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to witness the underwater beauty of Sipadan, you owe a small thanks to Borneo Divers.
Jacques Cousteau gets all the credit for making Sipadan famous, but the hard work was done by Borneo Divers. The company was founded by Malaysian Clement Lee (one of the dive industry’s most legendary conservationists and a longtime friend of Scuba Travel Ventures) and partners Ron Holland, Randy Davis, and Samson Shak.
Borneo Divers made the first exploratory dives in 1982 and built the island’s first dive resort the following year. At the time, Sipadan’s coral reefs were plagued by local dynamite fishing, which was literally blowing up the island’s coral and fish. The practice ended when Borneo Divers set up shop and established a tourist market.
Their second resort on Mabul is one of the nicest around. Refurbished from 2019 to 2021, with minor improvements still being made, the resort is basically brand-new. The rooms are located on the island while the dive center lies entirely on the jetty, so your lodging is well-separated from the noisy dive boats, air compressors, and dive center hustle-and-bustle.
For years, Borneo Divers had the only dive operation at Sipadan. Everything changed when Jacques Cousteau came to town.
With assistance from Borneo Divers, Cousteau filmed a documentary about the island that spread the word like wildfire. The next decade saw a substantial influx of tourists, dive professionals, and resort staff, and by the early 2000s the island hosted 5 dive resorts.
Sipadan could not carry the weight of unregulated tourism. The coral reefs started to whither.
Borneo Divers made a genuine effort to employ eco-friendly practices at its resort but even the owners acknowledged the degradation of the coral. Marine biologists identified pollution and untreated sewage runoff as the main culprits, and also destruction by careless divers.
But the island was saved by a good twist of fate.
Sipadan had been ungoverned territory for many decades. Neither Malaysia nor Indonesia wanted to be drawn into a contentious border dispute over it so they both avoided making a claim on the island, preferring the status quo of terra nullius.
That changed when Sipadan became famous. The prospect of untapped tourism revenue raised new excitement about the island’s territorial status. Ultimately, both countries agreed to bring the case before the International Court.
In 2002, the court awarded Sipadan to Malaysia, on the basis that Malaysia had a history of occupying the island and also because Sipadan is closer to Malaysian borders.
Now with total authority over the island, the Malaysian government made one of the most stunning and gutsy moves in conservation history: they ordered the 5 dive resorts to pack up, demolish their buildings, and leave Sipadan.
With Malaysia’s economy beginning to flourish, the government realized that tourism promised a bright future. Protecting Borneo’s landscape would be instrumental in developing the country’s ecotourism.
Borneo Divers was ahead of the game. Feeling guilty about the ailing coral and also anticipating such a move by the government, the owners had already started a new dive operation based at Mabul Island, just 15 minutes from Sipadan and with a longer history of human occupation. They were (proudly) the first dive resort to move out.
The government never paid a cent in compensation to the dive resorts. Borneo Divers lost millions, but they handled the transition much more easily than the other dive resorts due to their foresight and well-established brand.
They’ve got no hard feelings about it, either. Healthy reefs are good for business, and the new resort on Mabul is bigger and more luxurious than what they could have built on Sipadan.
After I’ve settled into my room, I walk to the jetty to get my rental gear and do a check dive.
Mohd Fuad is my guide for most of the week. Everyone calls him Scott. You should ask him how he got that nickname — it’s a nice story.
Scott was born in the state capital of Kota Kinabalu in a village called Menggatal. He never dreamed that he’d have one of the luckiest jobs in the world: diving Sipadan week-in and week-out.
When Scott was 17 he took a part-time job at a submarine base in Sabah and assisted the divers that worked on the subs.
“Basically my job is just filling up tanks and setting up their equipment and dive gear,” says Scott.
“The divers that worked there kept telling me I should become a diver by joining this program.”
The program takes local Malaysians with no diving experience and turns them into divemasters. It’s organized by the Sabah government as part of an initiative to get more Malaysians working in the dive industry. Many candidates are interviewed but only 20 are selected for the program.
“I went to the interview. I wait for a few days. Suddenly I got a phone call that they accept me into the training. I got in.”
The training was mostly done by Borneo Divers, which offered Scott a job at their dive center in Kota Kinabalu. After a few months they transferred him to Mabul. He’s on his 9th year with the resort.
Guiding divers at Sipadan is not easy. The diving is deep and the currents are strong, which makes it challenging to look after the divers underwater. On top of that, Scott is responsible for making sure the divers don’t harm marine life.
“We get too many divers who don’t really have good performance,” says Scott.
He abides by the company’s philosophy: At Borneo Divers, we make divers.
They’re not only talking about students and courses. If you demonstrate poor performance when you’re diving, the staff will not hesitate to give you instruction no matter what your certification or experience level.
“The most important thing you need to take care of at Sipadan is your buoyancy,” says Scott. “Nobody wants to see you kicking the corals. Landing on top of the coral reefs and all.”
“If they’re not listening to us, sometimes we have to do something underwater. I’ve seen dive professionals actually hit the diver with the tank banger! Their legs, their head!”
Scott doesn’t do that, but if divers aren’t following his instructions he will issue sharp commands via gestures and hand signals that are quite assertive and even intimidating.
He’s not a mean guy; like most Malaysians, Scott is a chill, pleasant dude who enjoys hanging out with clients at the dive bar. But he’s got an important job to do: protecting the precious marine life at Sipadan. Management encourages the dive professionals to be as strict as required to prevent divers from hurting the animals and coral.
“Here at Borneo Divers, you know we’re a pioneer so we have to take good care of the name. We’re not gonna make ourselves look bad to the world.”
Dive facilities at Borneo Divers.
It can be demanding to work for a company with high standards and a reputation to uphold, but the staff enjoy a few perks. They get a 2-week leave every 2 – 3 months, and enjoy some pretty fantastic accommodations while they’re working on Mabul.
“We have staff quarters — really nice! We got air conditioning. We got ceiling fans. Hot showers. As a dive instructor I get a room to myself.”
Plus, there’s only a short commute.
“Every morning, I just have to wake up and walk from my room to the jetty.”
It’s a 5-minute walk.