Seasonal visibility in Sipadan

[gee13]

Hi all im looking to get an insight to this. If you can post your visits and when with a weather and vis approximation and temperature hopefully that would help understand the variances. I do understand visibility is very subject to multiple factors such as seasons, particulates in water, currents/tides, swell, rain runoff etc

My concern is whether runoff from semporna is also affecting this. Flying out of tawau on my last trip i did see quite a large slick going in the direction of mabul.. But its a longer way out to sipadan.
So I dont know if there was any influence.

I was there in May 09 we had flat seas, low wind, sunny days (1 overcast day with choppy seas) , little current and 40+m vis max. Min vis 20m. Average 30m. 28C temps

In Sept 11 we had flat seas, sunny days, moderate to strong current, 20m+ vis max. Min vis 5m. (lots of particulates and green water at times.) Average 10m. 27C temps

 

[Luko]

End of february/ first days of march 10 : great sunny weather, not even one cloud in 5 days, no wind, dead flat sea. Exceptional 40m viz on barracuda point, we could see the Jacks and the barracuda schools in one sight, mostly 25m elsewhere. There was probably a constant 18-20m viz on Old house reef and Kapalai, which was exceptional for everybody. LOTS of critters.

August 10 : More wind and slightly choppy seas, mainly sunny but wind chasing clouds sometimes. Some rain pours in the afternoon 4 out of 7 days. Sipadan was in the 20m viz range best on south point probably 20-25m, going down to 15 in the afternoon with particles hanging. Mabul was ranging from 8 to 12m at best viz.

December/Xmas 10 : Overcast earky mornings getting sunny after 9AM, mainly overcast afternoon with occasional rainpours. Rained almost everynight. Slightly choppy seas. Sipadan in the 15m viz range rarely 20m except for the first dive. Mabul viz reduced to 8-10m range, best on Paradise 2. Less critters than the other months.

 

[Hashsaz]

Jan - may will be the best season, the rest at the mid of year are fine but sometimes raining with milky visibility, and year end raining is quite frequent which cause bad visibilities.