Trip Report Mabul Trip Report (Scuba Junkie)

[JonnieB]

Mabul trip at Scuba Junkies. First day...2 dives at Kapalai and 2 at Mabul - turtles and crazy macro are the main themes. Sadly large aggragations of reef fish are not. (If you want to see all the parrotfish, snappers, groupers, jacks, barracudas, and even pufferfish no need to go to Mabul or Sipadan, just go to the seafood restaurant holding tanks in Semporna, that cater to the Chinese tourist crowds. The reefs seem denuded of many common schooling reef fish.

Highlights from Kapalai dives: 8-10 turtles - mixed Hawksbill and Green (but mostly Greens), 12-15 nuddies (assorted), 4-5 Pharoah and/or Broadclub cuttlefish (one very large 70-80 cm), Pair of Marble Snake Eels, Brown Snake Eel, Fimbriated, Snowflake, and White Eye moray eels, Harlequin Crab, Orangutan Crab (pair), Coral Whip Shrimp, several large (1m) Crocodile Fish, Flying Gunard, Blu Spot Ribbontail Stingray.

Dive 3: Sipadan Water Village to Scuba Junkie house reef. Painted Frogfish (green), Reef Stonefish, Robust Ghost Pipefish, Bottletail Squid or Crinoid Cuttlefish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish (pair out hunting), Lacy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias).

Crazy Nite Dive: Four Frogfish (2 Clown (white & yellow), 1 Painted (red), 1 unidentified (pinhead size 1-2mm), Long Arm Octopus (3), Coconut Octopus (3-4) Mimic Octopus, Cockatoo Waspfish, Bottletail Squid (2-3), Stumpy Spine Cuttlefish (2), Papuan Cuttlefish (3), Ornate Ghost Pipefish (pair), Rhinopias, and highlight of the day Ambon Scorpionfish!!!

Grails ticked off: Lacy Rhinopias, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Ambon Scorpionfish. After one day, I can pack up and go home... definitely the most epic dive day for me ever!!!

 

[Tippytoes12]

Wow, so pleased for you that you saw so much in just one day ! Looking forward to hearing how the coming days go.

 

[Centrals]

Mabul trip at Scuba Junkies. First day...2 dives at Kapalai and 2 at Mabul - turtles and crazy macro are the main themes. Sadly large aggragations of reef fish are not. (If you want to see all the parrotfish, snappers, groupers, jacks, barracudas, and even pufferfish no need to go to Mabul or Sipadan, just go to the seafood restaurant holding tanks in Semporna, that cater to the Chinese tourist crowds. The reefs seem denuded of many common schooling reef fish.

In Thailand the sea food are catering for any tourists regardless of nationality!!!! LOL.
And on Kata Beach some of the tourists are after "two legs version" and ........"happy ending". LOL.

 

[Musicgirl]

Hey, welcome to my neck of the woods. Glad you enjoyed your trip. It sounds incredible. Definitely keep us updated on the rest of your trip.

 

[JonnieB]

Wrapped up my 5N6D 15 dive scuba safari at Scuba Junkies, Mabul Island, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. I will review the land portion of my stay in a later post. In this one, I will review my logbook for the days after my first day, to see what the rest if my days were like.

Diving Logistics

There are two boat transfers from Semporna (the jump off point to Sipadan/Mabul) to SJ Mabul a day...morning about 9:00 and afternoon about 15:00. It is a 45 minute trip. The nearest airport is in Tawau, which is 1.5 hours from Semporna. For most international visitors, the easiest route is to get to Kuala Lumpur and then a flight to Tawau. Depending on when you arrive in KL, you can overnite there or continue onto Tawau and overnite in Semporna. If you take the morning boat transfer, you will start diving the day if your arrival. If the afternoon boat, you will start the following morning. SJ will coordinate the Tawau airport to Semporna transfer for guests but it's not included in their dive/stay package and you pay the driver directly. The taxi fare is about MR100 (US$23). (Get some Malaysian ringgit in Kuala Lumpur for the taxi and also for DM/Guide tips...MR 50 per day is good). One quirk about traveling to Sabah (and Sarawak) is that though they are part of Malaysia, they control their own border entry/exit points. Meaning...you have to be stamped into/out of Sabah in your passport like it's a foreign country, even though you arrived on a "domestic" flight.

There are three diving areas you will dive when going to "Sipadan" and staying on Mabul (or Kapalai), where all the resorts are located. The dive sites are either located around Mabul Island, Sipadan Island, or Kapalai sandbar. Sipadan is about a 30 ride from Mabul, Kapalai 15 minutes, and Mabul 5. There are 3 dives a day and optional nite dive. Two dives will be at one of the aforementioned islands and the third will be at Mabul. The first two dives leave between 6:00-9:00 in the morning and return for lunch at Mabul. The third dive at Mabul is about 14:00 and the nite dive (at the house jetty) is around 18:00.

So getting to my logbook, what do we have? Turtles, turtles, turtles...I estimate during my 15 dives, I saw 60-70 turtles. They are everywhere at all the dive sites...mostly Green Turtles but also a few Hawksbills sprinkled in amongst them. On most dives, you will see 6-12 of them doing what turtles do...mostly eating, resting, and sleeping. For the mist part, they are not overly warry of divers if approached slowly and from below. They are often seen perched on a coral ledge or in a nook along a wall staring at the passing clumsy noisy diving creatures with one eye open. Other times, they have their heads pointed into the coral nooks and must be sleeping. Some of the older Green turtles are massive...2m long and over a meter wide. At some sites, it's almost as if one is getting turtle-bombed as one after another takes off from near the top of the reef and floats gently downward toward unsuspecting divers looking for fish and critters along the reef slope. If pays to look up once and a while to avoid a collision with one of them.

That's it for now...more fishy sightings in the next post.

 

[Luko]

Glad to hear that Mabul still has a high macro potential.
I remember Kapalai was the place I saw for the first time a flamboyant cuttlefish as well, that was 13 years ago. This was also the exact moment the internal mirror of my 5D dSLR decided to come out loose. It was probably blinded by the beauty of the flamby, fortunately that was my last day diving in Mabul before a transfer to Moalboal/Philippines : I found a chinese photoshop in Tawau where an old chinese bloke managed to duct tape the mirror inside the camera so I could still use it in Moalboal. (Reminds me there are no more flights going from KK to Cebu : that was a diver's favorite).

You were really lucky to find a rhinopias in Mabul, even more than the Ambon scorpionfish, however just to be picky...

Lacy Rhinopias,

There are no Lacy Rhinopias aphanes in SEA, it's a Pacific ocean specie.
You probably have seen Rhinopias frondosa, weedy Rhinopias, which more frequent though still a rare sighting in the Indo-Pacific region .

 

[Centrals]

Saw the flamboyant cuttlefish on my only trip to Sipadan in 1997. However, the kidnapping in 2000 has dampened my enthusiasm for a quick return. But the subsequent introduction of quota in 2006 convinced me NOT to bother.
Never ever miss the place.

 

[JonnieB]

Glad to hear that Mabul still has a high macro potential.
I remember Kapalai was the place I saw for the first time a flamboyant cuttlefish as well, that was 13 years ago. This was also the exact moment the internal mirror of my 5D dSLR decided to come out loose. It was probably blinded by the beauty of the flamby, fortunately that was my last day diving in Mabul before a transfer to Moalboal/Philippines : I found a chinese photoshop in Tawau where an old chinese bloke managed to duct tape the mirror inside the camera so I could still use it in Moalboal. (Reminds me there are no more flights going from KK to Cebu : that was a diver's favorite).

You were really lucky to find a rhinopias in Mabul, even more than the Ambon scorpionfish, however just to be picky...

There are no Lacy Rhinopias aphanes in SEA, it's a Pacific ocean specie.
You probably have seen Rhinopias frondosa, weedy Rhinopias, which more frequent though still a rare sighting in the Indo-Pacific region .

Yes the species I saw was Rhinopias frondosa or "Weedy Scorpionfish." It was confusion on my part as I thought the "lacy" nomenclature referred to the frilly finned variant and "weedy" referred to the paddle-fin variety. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[BnNSpirit]

How is the diving around Sipadan island itself?

I understand that they reduce the number of dive down to 2 dives (from 3 dives), just want to know the diving logistic on the Sipadan day, how they arrange the planning with 2 dives only.

I've done Sipadan in two separate dive trips,

1st trip,
I'm staying on Kapalai resort where they pack breakfast for you and the boat depart 6.30am. You will be the first boat to arrive Sipadan island and the only group diving at 7am, which is very nice since the usual dive site in Sipadan island can be very crowded.

2nd dives and 3rd dives is at 9am and 11am respective with surface interval on Sipadan island.

We return to Kapalai resort after having lunch on Sipadan island and you can opt for another unguided shore dives on the same day without additional charge to Kapalai house reef (evening dive or night dive) which is inclusive in the dive package with Kapalai resort.

2nd trip,
This time I'm staying on Mabul island (Mabul backpacker), boat depart at 8am, dives are at 9am, 11am and 2pm where you only go back to Mabul island 4pm which is tiring and late.

 

[Searcaigh]

Both of my trips to Sipadan were with Borneo Divers, the first one back in 1992 when I stayed on Sipadan Island and the second trip with my daughter in 2011 when we stayed on Mabul, due to the changes that occurred because of overcrowding on Sipadan (greed, corruption etc.).

Not sure who I would use to re-visit Sipadan again, but most likely Borneo Divers unless there is a better operation.