Sipadan, off the northeast coast of Borneo, is well-known for turtles. There are also many whitetip reef sharks, bumphead parrotfish and many other species. The wall offshore drops straight off to two thousand feet from chest-deep water, a great place for a beach dive.
We saw turtles on just about every dive. People told us the number of turtles had declined and there used to be more, but for us they were really easy to find and photograph. The third photo shows Charlotte moving in for a shot.
We saw plenty of sharks but they did not get too close. The exception was on our checkout dive where a shark swam in with a school of jacks. The jacks rubbed against the coarse skin of the shark to remove parasites. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take our cameras on the checkout dive.
These huge bumphead parrotfish were sleeping in nooks in the wall just in front of the resort. They were there for several nights and then they were all gone.
More clownfish with their anemones. The bright red mass in the third photograph is clownfish eggs.
We saw butterflys, triggerfish, lionfish, and many more around Sipadan.
We found nudibranchs like this one along the wall in front of the resort.
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Last modified 24 December 2003