Dive Mabul and Kapalai

Here is the second part of the Mabul diving pictures.  All the pictures here are taken at the dive sites on Mabul island and Kapalai.  Divers here would expect to see more of the bigger fishes like Trevallies, Lion fish and turtles.  The coral reefs here are really lacking as compared to reefs near my hometown, Miri.

A pair of ribbon eels

A colourful nudibranch

Mabul island

Moray eel

Lion fish

Stone fish

Titan trigger fish

Me!

Lion fish in technicolor.

Seahorse

Black clownfish?

Squid

Green turtle

Octopus

Yellow frogfish

Aziz the divemaster making a ring bubble

Me, dive buddy and dive master.

Diving on the eastern coast of Sabah. Part 1 Sibuan Island

Diving in the Celebes sea between Borneo and the Philippines offers plenty of encounters with large marine wildlife like giant groupers, turtles, trevallies and also the occasional cuttlefish and octopus.  During the past week I had traveled to Semporna, a growing fishing town at the south-east of Sabah from my hometown of Miri, Sarawak to check out some of the dive sites available nearby.  For the two days that I dived, I managed to  surprise myself with creatures I've never really seen before.

Sibuan island

For the first dive day, we went to Sibuan island to the north of Semporna.  It is one of the most beautiful little islands I have been on with crystal clear waters and white sandy beaches.  It is quite the place to be for learner divers with it shallow waters.  However, you know tourists or humans have been there too often as you find trash on the sea floor and being washed onshore.

Divers usually see plenty of sea anemones and its resident clownfish pairs.  There is also a patch of the sea floor where a colony of sea urchins have made a home of.

Clown fish on a sea anemone.

Long beaked butterfly fish

Sea urchins

Trumpet fish

 I got ecstatic when I spotted a juvenile (by turtle standards) hawsbill turtle swimming about probably looking for some food.  We sort of chased it around the reef hoping to get a good picture of us and it together.  Taking photos underwater is hard!

Hawkbill turtle

Us and the hawksbill turtle swimming along just fine.

The turtle got annoyed with us so it hid under a coral

Huge school of fish

Crown of thorns.  The eater of corals

A pair of shrimp

Sole.  A species of flatfish.  Both its eyes are on the same side of its body.