Scuba diving at Sipadan Island

Ron and I had 3 AMAZING dives yesterday at Sipadan Island, a reef off the continental shelf (600 m drop) on the
southeast of Sabah (Borneo), Malaysia. We saw white-tipped sharks, huge turtles, a huge school of barracudas, a devil ray, two octopuses, and just many, many fish of all types off this impressive wall. We are due to go again on Sunday.

We've been diving around here for the last week or so and have seen some neat things but EVERY DIVE at Sipadan is the best of all of those dives (and more). Wow. It is a national park and access is restricted so the reef is in very good health (unlike some others we've seen around here), so that is encouraging. Ron (who has training in reef health) says some of the other reefs are beat up, or diseased or over-fished.

Sipadan has only been a protected area since 2005, so it is encouraging that the reef can be healthy if left alone. The other reefs we've seen here with healthy and abundant marine life of all sorts have been artificial ones.

Sabah is covered in rainforest. Where they have designated national parks things are good (Mount Kinabalu, Sipadan Island). But where things are not protected, the environment is taking a hit (not unlike at home, really). I have a Malaysian friend in Kuala Lumpur who tells me Malaysia has just recently restructured the tax money that goes to Sabah, such that Sabah gets it's own money. This is very good for Sabah, and I have high hopes (naive optimist that I am) that good changes will come as a result.