Mabul - Sipadan's Overlooked Stepsister

by Serina Rahman

Mabul is often disregarded as a mere appendage to Sipadan – the 6-star dive destination that everyone dreams of.  Now that Sipadan is closed to resorts and overnight visitors, Mabul’s popularity has shot up, but still it remains simply a convenient layover for Sipadan diving.

This is a great shame because Mabul has magnificent diving in its own right.  Although not blessed with the endorsement of Jacques Cousteau or the guaranteed presence of large reef sharks, there is more to Mabul than just a muck diving paradise.

It goes without saying, of course, that Mabul is the place to be for macro maniacs.  As the third destination in most divers’ daily itinerary, the island is well known for its mating mandarinfish, innumerable nudibranchs of unimaginable colours, uncountable shrimps and crabs hiding in and amongst corals and anemones, harlequin ghostpipefish and the elusive pygmy seahorse.

But big schools of fish are not alien to Mabul’s waters.  The Sipadan-Mabul Resort  (SMART) located on Mabul island, 20 minutes boat ride from Sipadan, has a house reef that is popular with schools of large bumphead parrotfish and a school of batfish, chevron barracuda and several large filefish that have made its jetty their home.

Unique to this area are the artificial reefs put in by SMART’s dive crew.  The brainchild of the resort’s owner, these environmentally-friendly ‘belian’ wood structures set on a patch of once barren sand began as an experiment but are so successful as fish aggregation devices that they decided to put in more.  As a result, there is always a sizeable school of trevallies, yellow-finned barracuda, a number of huge resident garoupas and many other species.

While many purists view artificial reefs as nothing more than marketing gimmicks that pollute our oceans, SMART’s reefs have been created with a lot of thought and only as a result of prior successes.  The resort also makes the effort to monitor what they put into their waters. 

Taking it in their stride however, SMART has continued with the structures that do work and their most recent wooden pyramids have begun to show progress towards coral growth within just a month.

The thing that makes a difference in Mabul is that the resorts truly seem to care about their environment.  SMART’s artificial reefs are home-grown inventions placed with minimal fanfare, the area was specially chosen because it was empty and desolate; and the resort strictly avoids using unnatural materials.  Sipadan Water Village (SWV) just next door conducts environmental awareness programs for their guests, getting them involved in coral transplantation and monitoring.  Borneo Divers, just down the beach, claims to take it a step further and cajoles their guests to reduce water usage and encourages the use of environmentally-friendly soaps and detergents.
Indeed, it is the people in Mabul that make a difference.  Unlike Sipadan and Kapalai which are merely dive destinations, Mabul is home to a number of ethnic people – largely originating from the Sulu Seas.  Orang laut (sea gypsies) also take shelter in Mabul’s bays during storms.  The islanders are friendly and open and visitors are always encouraged to stroll around the villages to meet them.  One enterprising local has a homestay program that allows foreigners a true feel of Mabul island living.

Many Mabul islanders have become naturalized citizens, and the island’s proximity and ethnic ties to both Indonesia and the Philippines have resulted in a pleasant amalgamation of tagalog, bahasa Indonesia and bahasa Malaysia as the lingua franca.

While SWV’s superior staff training and Japanese-styled efficiency has resulted in top class accommodation and service, SMART resorts have managed to balance extremely comfortable and just as luxurious lodgings with a warmth that can only stem from a positive working environment.  The resort makes it a point to hire locally and promote from within and the opportunities provided to the staff have ensured that they are happy with their jobs. This in turn translates into a sincerely welcoming and comfortable stay for the guest.

So Mabul easily takes the cake on land – but underwater there is much more to be seen than is promoted and publicized.  A dive just off one of the local villages, not 2 minutes away from the resort jetty, was surprisingly reminiscent of the ‘Drop Off’ at Sipadan – resplendent with hard and soft coral and of course Mabul’s trademark supply of weird and wonderful macro critters. 

But what made it even more special, however, was that the dive ended with the surprise appearance of 4 eagle rays performing a mating dance before our startled bubbles.  On the surface our Dive master confided that there was actually much more to see further down that wall, they just don’t want to take too many divers there.

Such tantalizing hints of a thriving marine world just waiting to be experienced and the concern that the resorts hold over those precious aquatic assets can only bode well for the island.  With a little luck and a lot of care, maybe Mabul will eventually attain the recognition and stature that it truly deserves – yet manage to better protect its environs than other more popular destinations nearby.
Serina Rahman