Sipadan | Meet Malaysia
5. The Adventure
“I have seen other places like Sipadan, 45 years ago, but now no more.”
— Jacques Cousteau
Strangely, I find that stepping onto Sipadan Island is the most thrilling part about diving Sipadan.
There’s nothing on Sipadan except for a small lodge, a bathroom, and a picnic area where divers have lunch. Somewhere on the backside is a military outpost that guards Sipadan and its divers. That’s about it, though. With the dive resorts gone, you get the sense that nature has reclaimed its place as the island’s rightful ruler.
Pulau Sipadan gets few daily visitors; you’re a lucky person if you’re able to come here. I can’t help but feel a rush of giddy excitement as my feet hit the sand.
The surface interval affords me the best opportunity to breathe-in the island. We’re not allowed to explore or go swimming, so after we eat and have our coffee we find ourselves a place to stretch out under the shade of palm trees.
Lying on this sand, which is cushioned by coral, that’s lifted by an old volcano sinking thousands of feet to the seafloor, I almost have the feeling that the ocean is cradling me. It’s a simple feeling and a pleasant feeling.
Scott feels lucky to have spent so much time on this beach and logged so many dives at Sipadan. Even so, he’s spent nearly his entire career at Mabul and he’s just about ready for a change.
“I’m gonna stay here exactly 10 years — that’s next year,” says Scott. “I want to try and work in Indonesia as a dive instructor, and I want to work in Malaysia Peninsula as well, mostly on Tioman.”
Sipadan has changed him. When Scott first started working at Borneo Divers, he felt a great deal of pride at getting paid to dive one of the world’s most celebrated dive sites.
“But year by year,” he says, “I started thinking about conservation things.”
Nowadays, Scott gets special satisfaction from activities like underwater cleanup, coral restoration, coral planting, and local education; Borneo Divers organizes a program that teaches Mabul’s local children the importance of picking up trash and taking care of the island.
Still, Sipadan faces challenges.
All the staff I speak with tell me they’ve noticed a small decline in the density of fish and health of the coral, a change that’s been slow but noticeable over the last 10 years.
It’s hard to imagine Sipadan being any more amazing than it already is, but the staff swear by it.
“The reef was a little nicer back then,” says Scott. “People talk about global warming, stuff like that. Sometimes the coral gets destroyed by divers, as well. I’ve seen that in front of my eyes. It’s really devastating.”
While climate change poses the most severe threat, careless diving is probably the most significant daily threat to Sipadan.
“Here’s the thing about divers,” says Scott. “Sometimes they just don’t listen to you even though you keep telling them not to do that, not to do this.”
Scott says there are some dive centers that visit Sipadan which don’t have the same standards as Borneo Divers, and they don’t do enough to keep their divers from harassing animals or bumping into the reef.
Thankfully, there’s some good news.
Scott says the reefs are in better shape after the Covid pandemic, when the island enjoyed 2 years without divers or snorkelers. Beginning this year, Sipadan will be closed every November to give the island a similar, if shorter recovery time.
Sabah Parks also tightened the rules after the pandemic. Now they only allow 2 dives per permit instead of 3, reducing the overall number of dives by a third. They also banned training dives on the island.
Furthermore, the Malaysian government, PADI, and the Borneo tourism industry is lobbying to have Sipadan classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which would provide more funding to protect and restore the island.
The hope is that the annual closure and new regulations will make the diving more sustainable and keep the coral in good shape.
Although careless divers can be tiresome, Scott doesn’t feel any sort of fatigue about the diving itself, even after all these years.
“If there’s a school of sharks over there or a school of barracuda in front of me… I’m like, from inside my regulator, woo-hoo!
“You’re surrounded by fish, you swim with sharks… I still feel that!
“I still got that excitement.”
Due to the limited number of permits, it can be tough to book a group trip to Sipadan. Contact Scuba Travel Ventures and we’ll make sure your group gets all the rooms and dive permits you need to have an unforgettable adventure.