turtles in Sipadan

[Hank49]

Anyone recently gone to Sipadan...just curious....are there still lots and lots of turtles? When I was there in 1998 it was "Turtle City". The dive operators or someone, had a little hatchery on the back of the island and would gather newly hatched eggs, incubate them and turn them loose. As a result, turtles were everywhere. Usually it's nice to see one but when I was there, you had to practically push them out of the way to see something else. I saw them eating sponges, laying on soft corals etc...damaging the reef way more than divers. I thought they should start serving turtle soup at the dive centers....any other views on this? Hank

 

[Conce]

I was there in April this year and there was a LOT of turtles ... Every dive I did (36), I saw turtles eating sponges, laying on soft corals, sleeping (nigth and day divings), in cleaning stations, swiming towards the current, ... And of all sizes: small, medium and very big ones.

My last mornig in Sipadan I just snorkeled above the drop off and I could see many turtles swimming to surface to breath, sharks and bumphead parrot fishes swimming, a big napoleon swimming side by side with me, titan trigger-fish caring their nest, a huge school of jacks, many school of fishes (all colours and shapes). I thought I was in heaven and I would go back there in a minute.

I just loved Sipadan.

 

[jiveturkey]

Anyone recently gone to Sipadan...just curious....are there still lots and lots of turtles? When I was there in 1998 it was "Turtle City". The dive operators or someone, had a little hatchery on the back of the island and would gather newly hatched eggs, incubate them and turn them loose. As a result, turtles were everywhere. Usually it's nice to see one but when I was there, you had to practically push them out of the way to see something else. I saw them eating sponges, laying on soft corals etc...damaging the reef way more than divers. I thought they should start serving turtle soup at the dive centers....any other views on this? Hank

I was there in November and things were the same as you describe. So manay turtles that you stop looking at them after a while.

I too have noticed that turtles have sh*t buoyancy. They need to get more training.

 

[monkeybusiness]

Was there 3 months ago, lots of turtles and they still release the hatchlings on the beach. Also saw loads of white tip reef sharks and jacks and huge schools of bump head parrrot fish etc.. Was disapointed that the schhooling Barracuda's were no where to be seen and the resident DM's hadn't seen them in 3 months either. One more thing the on island resorts are to closed by end of this year. So you had better get to Sipidan quickly or you will be staying in Mabul and only get 2 boat dives a day on Sipidan and no night dives on the drop off and will be in the muck for the other dives.

 

[Conce]

We were lucky - we saw the schhooling Barracuda's once in the midreef - it was an amazing sigth. It was a big school - hundreds - but I can´t compare with the school seen before - people usually say that it was thousands of barracudas.

 

[Little Brown Monkey]

Anyone recently gone to Sipadan...just curious....are there still lots and lots of turtles? When I was there in 1998 it was "Turtle City". The dive operators or someone, had a little hatchery on the back of the island and would gather newly hatched eggs, incubate them and turn them loose. As a result, turtles were everywhere. Usually it's nice to see one but when I was there, you had to practically push them out of the way to see something else. I saw them eating sponges, laying on soft corals etc...damaging the reef way more than divers. I thought they should start serving turtle soup at the dive centers....any other views on this? Hank

We were there this April and there were tons of turtles, sharks, jacks, barracudas, bumpheads, fish.. and we saw 3 mantas which they say is a rare occurrence in Sipadan!! Didnt see the schooling hammerheads though because this would be such an early morning dive and we were staying all the way in Mabul Water Village which is a great resort, great staff !

Little Brown Monkey

 

[Conce]

Besides all other staff, we saw 2 mantas in Sipadan and 3 hammerhead sharks !!!!

When we were there people in the other resort saw a whale shark!! What a month in Sipadan!!!!

 

[diver janet]

Anyone recently gone to Sipadan...just curious....are there still lots and lots of turtles? When I was there in 1998 it was "Turtle City". The dive operators or someone, had a little hatchery on the back of the island and would gather newly hatched eggs, incubate them and turn them loose. As a result, turtles were everywhere. Usually it's nice to see one but when I was there, you had to practically push them out of the way to see something else. I saw them eating sponges, laying on soft corals etc...damaging the reef way more than divers. I thought they should start serving turtle soup at the dive centers....any other views on this? Hank

Out of 39 dives in April, the only dives we DIDN'T see turtles on were off Kapalai in the muck! We even had several on Paradise 1 right in front of Sipadan Water Village. Over at Sipadan we must have seen at LEAST two dozen on every dive.....coming, going, feeding, resting, mating......sleeping on corals hanging off the walls...

A new group from California came in our last two days and after their first dives, came back and complained because "they didn't come all that way only to see turtles"! We just laughed.......there's so much to see, the turtles are the "gravy"......

 

[tboxcar]

Curious as we just returned from Sipadan/Mabul and had a great time. Can anyone tell me the average visibility they experienced? We had great diving, but the vis. could have a been a bit better. Maybe due to the rain

 

[Rickg]

tboxcar,

3 trips ('94, '00 and '01). Visibility was between 10-20 meters on each trip. Resort DMs talked about getting better visibility on occasion but my guess it is all the nutrients in the water that draw the fish but cloud the visibility.

Rickg