Avoid TARP Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park

[IamScubaDog]

TARP is in a very bad state.

I did three dives with Borneo Divers. The price includes pickup from hotel at 8:30am and bring you to the dock at Tanjung Aru. Then it is on to a boat to Mamutik Island. They provided a towel for our use. All dive equipment is provided but the BC I used was old but functional. I didn't use their other equipment but I did see varying degrees of wear and tear on wetsuits. Lunch is also included but I can only say I ate so I can do the third dive; no seconds for me.

The locations I was at were north Sulug, Mid Reef, and Pyramid on the backside of Mamutik. The corals are mostly dead. I saw very few fish; if compared to Tioman of Perhentian where you get tired of seeing clownfishes, I was hard pressed to see any here. I saw one (yes just one) anemone crab, five nudibranch, and I spotted a grand total of three tiny lion fish. On all my dives, I saw one longfin bannerfish.

I know I am not supposed to touch anything but I was curious where all the coral were so I dug into the substrate and found the top of the coral buried six inches below the sand and silt.

I am going to try to dive the other islands but I do not have high hopes as they are all close to each other.

 

[racerx_]

I did my AOW there in 2011 and it was ok. But late last year dove Clements reef Rons reef and the sapi coral garden. Rons was ok but at clements we saw almost nothing. It was weird. Like had a hard time finding fish even. House reef was alright but the muck diving parts were better

 

[Kieran Byrne]

Hey, me and the wife have just dived tar park completing our AOW whilst on honeymoon. We dived with dive down below. 30 and 31july.
We went to mid reef, extention reef, coral garden, North sulig and ribbon reef. This was our first time ever to dive in the sea so we have no experience of diving any where else. For this reason we were happy with the diving experience. We saw puffer fish, lion fish, small shrimps on coral including orangutan crab. Razor fish, saw a sea horse at Mid reef wreck.
Fish life was abundant but for first time we were happy.

 

[Kieran Byrne]

I was meant to say fish life was not abundant. Currently diving at Mabul, not been to Sipadan yet, the diving is spot on. Seen so many different species.

---------- Post added August 8th, 2013 at 11:59 AM ----------

I know I am not supposed to touch anything but I was curious where all the coral were so I dug into the substrate and found the top of the coral buried six inches below the sand and silt. [/QUOTE]

Could you tell me why you did this and what does it mean, that the coal is only 6 inches deep?

 

[The Wolf]

It's no secret there has been massive fish bombing going on in the park for over the last 20 years that has all but wiped out much of the coral that did exist. That and the reclamation works in Kota Kinabalu that has brought about all that sand and silt...this is where we are today.

The park services have boats but do not patrol on a consistent basis..hence the rampant (or previously rampant) fish bombing activities by the members of a village on a certain island off the city.

It's not a new problem.