Sipadan's Big Fish Actions! (13th - 18th Jan 2010)

A trip seven months in the making came down to a wet start, as it was raining the minute we arrived at Tawau ( not that it mattered much since we were there to dive, but we would much prefer the bright shining sun which would bring out the best of colours underwater….anyway the weather got better and the rains finally stopped on our 3rd day). We were the predominant group at the Borneo Diver Resort, so it was no surprise that we were spoilt to bits. Not only we got 4 days’ permits to Sipadan, we were also given free unlimited shore dives everyday right up till 8pm (and the sun sets at 6pm in Sabah!).

The jetty and platform of Borneo Diver serve as the entry point to the water and for the shore dives all we had to do was just step onto the platform and “stride” into the water. And here we mean diving in one of the best shore dives of Asian Pacific: Paradise 1 and Paradise 2….(Imagine Mandarin Fish mating just 15 meters from the jetty, and the prolific juvenile fish everywhere under the SWV jetty, Longhorn Cowfish, Harlequin Ghost Pipefish, Blue Ringed Octopus etc etc …..).

The dive services immaculate, and the guides attentive, rooms so-so (clean, big and comfortable), food, could be better but hey, I did enjoy the sweet and sour prawns and fried squid very much.

I guess we saw everything that was to be seen at Sipadan (saves the Barracuda vortex, which eluded us even after 4 trips to Barracuda Point!) Pelagic like Schooling (and I mean huge shoals) Barracuda (Chevron, Yellow fins, Slimline and Great), Travellies, Bumphead Parrotfish, Fusiliers, Batfish and last but not least the Turtles were just ubiquitous (oh I left out Titan Triggers, which attempted to bite a chunk out of both Andy and Simmon’s fins). Barracuda Point, and many other memorable sites like Drop Off and Hanging Garden, have been consistently living up to their reputations.

Thanks must go out to the awesome eightsome, or Snow White and the seven dwarves (depends on how you look at it). This trip, in all account, is a successful and memorable one.

Here are the pictures:

1. Wall Divings, which Sipadan is famous for: A Spadefish taking a lackadaisical mid morning swim.



2. Hanging Garden: True to its name, this site has walls that are just festooned with all kinds of corals, sponges, featherstars, algae and sessile/sedentary marine lives.



3. The Chevron Barracudas, each about 4 feet long, swam in huge shoals in Barracuda Point.



4. Chevrons, hunt solitarily at night, swim in large schools in the day to conserve energy.



5. Sipadan sites are just full of schools or shoals of fish, like this group of Golden Spadefish.



6. Divers and Sea Whip Corals.



7. Spiral Corals, daisy cup corals and Barrel Sponges adorn the spaces that are not already cramped by the other corals.



8. Beautiful Pinnate Batfish patrolling under the stilts of Sipadan Jetty



9. Two kinds of soft corals engaging in a tuft fight to vie for space on this rock, you can see from the here that the bottom colony is clearly winning the battle and in due time the top colony will be wiped out.


10. Clumps of Feather stars, they might appear plantlike but if you observe closely you can sometimes see them feeding, when they curl up of one of their many "feathered tentacles" to retract the trapped planktons and micro organisms. So they are more like sea stars than plants.



11. Barrel Sponge and Black Coral "tree" (I know it’s not black and it’s not a tree)



12. Dawn Dive at Drop Off, this means waking up at 430am and reaching Sipadan at 615am just before daybreak. At around 630am the Bumphead Parrotfish would wake up and leave their resting place in search of food (to graze at hard corals). This was taken just right after they woke up from their sleeping place (the ledges of the walls). There were hundreds of them!



13. One individual decides hygiene comes fist, and no eating before brushing.....



14. Say Cheese!



15. The Trevallies (aka. The Jacks), almost always swimming in huge schools, were everywhere, this group was found at the opening of Turtle Tomb’s Cave.



16. Jacks at the front, and Fusiliers at the back, fish congregate at places where planktons are rich, and swim in tight groups to protect themselves from being single out.



17. This turtle looks like having its head stucked in the crevice. In fact it was chewing on something. I waited for a good 2 minutes for it to come out but it just would not barge. Felt like yanking it out but of course i am a conscientious diver and never muddle with marine creatures



18. Green Turtle, posing and looking pretty beside the soft corals.



19. A hard days night: Resting Green Turtle and its cleaning lady: a Remora



20. White Tip Reef Shark: Sharks sink when they stop swimming, that's because they do not have bladders to act as a bouyancy control unit. Unlike many sharks, white tips are known to be able to stay resting on the seabed for a longer period of time and use the water that passes through their gills to supply them oxygen.

Nice reports, nice pictures. Thanks to the very hardcore diver Perry

Perry thanks for sharing the photos and the wonderful story/documentary...from this post, we can tell you are a skilled and knowledgeable driver and also a responsible one..

nice being surrounded by shoal of fishes there especially barracudas...in TV documentary, i saw this swirling mass of fishes like a round big object or tornado...very nice...have you seen that yourself?

really appreciate that you took time to write this post and share with us...

by the way perry, it's worthwhile to invest in a underwater camera since urs taking 3sec to trigger the shutter..hehe.. i bet you can shoot nicer photos to share with us...

nice nice....

Perry, Thanks for the nice photos and information sharing. It's not something we can see everyday and really appreciating the effort for all the photos and elaboration... I know some diver in sabah also, one of them is Dr. Soon Ruey. Wonder u might met him before....

Perry, thanks so much for the post and information attached with the photos...those are great! the is the shot only divers can get...hope will take up a diving course one day! and experience it myself...LOL

Keep it up man...




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wow... thanks Perry for the photos and the well explanation..
good job

cj wrote:by the way perry, it's worthwhile to invest in a underwater camera since urs taking 3sec to trigger the shutter..hehe.. i bet you can shoot nicer photos to share with us...

CJ, that's no underwater camera. To have better quality pictures, get a dslr + a underwater housing(which gonna cost about 2 times more than your dslr).

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement. there are much to be learnt about underwater photography, and the prerequisite has always been to get into water more and practice more, ie. to dive more. Which is a bit of luxury in both time and cost. Lets hope i shall get as much chances as i had last year.

Simmon: thanks but er...please stop referring me as a hardcore divers, i am a bit worry that a real hardcore diver might view the pictures and my comments and laugh his/her head off. But thanks for such compliments.

Edwin: Hope you take up diving soon, i can wax rhetoric and sing praises but really seeing is believing....

CJ: Yes Simmon is spot on with the cost thing. It is way too expensive to invest in dslr underwater casing, plus there is always the risk of flooding the case. I am thinking of swithing to a G11 or Lumix but would not mind waiting for a 2nd hand unit. so if opportunities arise i shall snatch them. Till then, i shall always practice the press the shutter first and frame the picture later approach. Cacat really as much of it is depending on luck. I am still hoping to "create" pictures that are razor sharp.

Fred: i have not heard of a Dr. Soon Ruey, i still consider myself a novice diver compared to so many old salts out there. I think it would take about 500 dives to consider myself jaded, and i only have 136 dives now.

CJ: The experience of being surrounded by a Barracuda Tornado/ Vortex has eluded us this trip. I was lamenting why we were not lucky enough to have such encounter until someone told me that he's been in Sipadan 3 times and still have not seen the vortex. Having said that, i think we saw everything that we sat out to see except for the vortex, and we visited Sipadan sites 4 times during this trip (an oddity as the permits are very hard to get), so i still consider the group lucky....ah well, guess that calls for a revisit....
On the contrary, my other friend who was in Sipadan during the Chinese New Year had 2 sightings. So it really depends on luck.

icic.. thanks simmon and perry for sharing...

photography itself is a expensive hobby.. then photography + diving = sweat! hehe

hope next time you both are able to see the barracuda vortex and snap some pictures... hehe.. well, good luck...

Thanks CJ:

Yes, it costs an arm and a leg to dive in exotic spots, and even more if you wish to take pictures. But the pay off is incomparable, noting that money can buy.

Imagine the odd of being born in the country that has amazing coral reefs (which constitute about 1% of the entire ocean area), and being able to travel to such exotic places in mere hours (all those Kai Lou has to travel thousand of miles to dive the tropical seas) and .....what's more, being financially able in this era where scuba diving is cheap and very accessable (recreation Scuba diving apparatus was invented in the 50s and only became popular in the early 90s). Lets not forget also that 80% of the coral reefs are seriously threatened and it is almost sure that if our next generations were to experience what we have a chance to experiece, they would have to pay much much more.

For any nature lover, the undersea realm is just too good to be missed. I can brag on and on about how pretty it is but seriously, as cliche as it may sound, seeing is believing!

Also i strongly believe that the passion to guard and conserve our ocean stem from the love of the ocean. I believe that once you are in "oneness" with the sea your love with the sea blossoms. If you fall in love with the nature, "naturally" you would want to protect it.

I encourage everybody to try out Scuba Diving, at the same time, would like to remind everybody to dive conscienciously and safely.

See you all in the water, future diving buddies...

Perry

Hey i experiensed the Barracuda votex leh...at Seaventure. Perry missed it He never stop mumbling after i told him

Ha Ha Simmon:

You know i am such a Divo when it comes to diving right..... My wish list has always been embarrasedly long and sometimes even i feel that i need to curb my enthusiasm a little! but hey all for the fun of diving right?

Perry

Nice and good job Perry


I think I can bang wall after see your photos.

Hi Frankie:

Welcome to Photonian. Now we have a true master in underwater photography! Thanks for your kind words, my pictures are nothing compared to yours. Please do some postings in Photonians to inspire the rest with your nice sets of underwater photography. I absolutely love love your Sipadan pictures from Facebook. Wish i could take those kind of pictures somedays.....