Sipidan anyone?

[hiddenaughty]

I call and ask for the diving situation yesterday around Sipadan, people told me that it's happens since Apr.. there isn't much fish around.. and we do heard from some other dive operator based at Mabul telling us.. they heard fish bombing around too... some said there isn't any turtle went up to the island to lay eggs from Jan 1 - 10, and this never happened before in the pass 10 years.. I heard lots of negetive story of the island.. wonder how true it is?

 

[ScubaJoel]

I call and ask for the diving situation yesterday around Sipadan, people told me that it's happens since Apr.. there isn't much fish around.. and we do heard from some other dive operator based at Mabul telling us.. they heard fish bombing around too... some said there isn't any turtle went up to the island to lay eggs from Jan 1 - 10, and this never happened before in the pass 10 years.. I heard lots of negetive story of the island.. wonder how true it is?

Hm. You know - the situation around Jan 1 - 10th wasn't much different from the time before, except the Drop Off Jetty was very empty and quiet. Of course there have been some boat traffic through leaving stuff, but not more than the usual dive traffic and the boats usual brought the customers to the islands - even less.

And of course divers have been landing on the beaches for having SI. Maybe this disturbed the turtels, but ... but if I'm right, they usualy come at nighttime.
Sipadan 01.01.05
Maybe because the divers have to do their pees in the jungle quiete close to the beach it prevents them from coming to the beach. I don't know much about turtels in deep, but as sayed the situation changed not that much to the bad at the 01.01.05.

Alright - I just send an email to Mabul and see what they are telling me about the situation.

 

[tzeyap]

I 've just return from a trip to Sipadan/Mabul 3 days ago. I had a great time -stayed at Smart.
Dynamite fishing ? No way ! Sipadan is a very small island and no one will be able to get away with dynamite fishing. While on one dive I did hear a boom which was probably dynamite fishing but at some place quite far from Sipadan or Mabul. I didn't see any fishing line or hooks during any of my dives.
I agree with you that the plastic bags probably floated in from villages on the mainland. In anycase, the divemasters and most divers will collect these .
I too did not see the THAT school of barracudas during my three dives at barracuda point, but there several other smaller schools at various other dive sites. I was told that the barracudas move out to open sea at various times during the year.
Did a dawn dive; in water by 6.15am and saw the humpheads at the edge of the drop-off. about 50 of them.
No night diving is allowed at Sipadan. The rangers keep a hawkish lookout throughout the day and night. Divers may spend surface interval on the beach just off the Drop-off but must remain in a cordoned off area of about 25 meter square and are not allowed to put one foot outside the boundary.
Riding turtles ? Even if one were to just stroke the turtle you would get a telling off from the divemasters. Smart dive-master do not permit diving with gloves.
There has been substantial degradation since I first dived sipadan nearly 15 years ago.
My believe is that this would have been due to effluent from the resorts which have now been closed down. I think that divers, clumsy ones and also the boats would have also contributed to it.
All said, Sipadan is still a great dive destination to be experienced and of course to be taken care of. On one dive I was 120 meters away from the wall in 35meters depth and I could clearly see the other divers at the side of the wall !!!
The resorts on Sipadan and all divers who contributed to overdiving must share responsibility for the degradation. I hope that the measures taken to close the resorts and limit diving are in the right direction.

 

[_Bella_]

I don't know if it's the same in Malaysia, but when I was recently in the Solomon Islands the water temperature was exceedingly warm! When I was there in November of 2004, the water temperature registered on my computer was 2-3 degrees Celcius cooler than end of April of 2005. If the water temperatures around the Celebes sea is also warmer it would explain a change in some of the fish populations.

 

[the_cat_keeper]

Dynamite fishing ? No way !

Glad to hear that... I still haven't seen the hammerheads yet. Got to be back there one of these days.

 

[tzeyap]

Glad to hear that... I still haven't seen the hammerheads yet. Got to be back there one of these days.

Hi catkeeper,

If it is hammerheads you want to see, you will get a much better chance to them in Layang-Layang. March/april would be a goodtime to see them in numbers. I saw a school of aboput 60 afew years back. I understand that chances of seeing solitary or small schools is still good at Layang2. Don't miss it ! gives you a real buzz!!!

 

[ScubaJoel]

Glad to hear that... I still haven't seen the hammerheads yet. Got to be back there one of these days.

AFAIK you have to go early and deep ~ 50 -60 m.
As tzeyap stated: at Layang-Layang you have a better chance.

 

[ScubaJoel]

Alright - I just send an email to Mabul and see what they are telling me about the situation.

My source is in Singapore at the moment - so no answer about the topic yet.
But I believe tzeyap (and thought it would be like that) and what he was able to tell us.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Hm, recently ... means we left 2nd of January (and I have been there in May last year)
Just when Sipadan was closed - but I really can't imagine its getting worse like this.

Personel I think this article is somehow over the top. I read the respons "Dynamite fishing claims in Sipadan refuted" recently and I trust it much more.

There might be other reasons, why I the barracudas are not there. They are not all the time there (Barracuda point), of course not. I did 40+ dives around Sipadan and never saw them. In december another group saw them, but we were at the wrong spot.

Sometime we had 20+ turtels in a dive, depending on time, and sometimes only three - this means nothing. If you get up early your experiencend DM will know where to meet the Humphead Parrots as well.
.

I was at sipadan two weeks ago (staying with SMART). There was one large school of Barracuda at Barracuda Point on the last 2 days of 7 days diving. Few greys and hammerheads in deeper water as well. The local DM's stated that the schools had recently started coming back - there hasn't been too many around during the past year. The bumpheaded parrotfish, turtles etc are still all there.

There is a large military presence on sipadan, so I doubt there is any dynamite fishing going on. Pelagic species tend to move around - its what they do.

Cheers,
Rohan.