Reaching out today for a better tomorrow

Sipadan Extreme Diving Holiday Discussion

Natural beauty as experienced in forests, coral reefs and other habitats enhances the quality of human life by providing artistic and spiritual inspiration as well as recreational and intellectual opportunities.Give one example of an experience or a connection you had during the trip and how it influenced your attitude, beliefs, and biases of people towards the use of resources and environmental protection. In your explanation please highlight a connection you had on the trip and what impression Sipadan and Mabul left with you. What was the one thing that really stood out to you and what can you do to contribute to the protection of resources like you experienced in Sipadan.
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Permalink Reply by Rebekka Pentti on September 15, 2011 at 1:31pm

Sipadan is recognised to be one of the world's top dive locations for its breathtaking scenery and its rich marine life from tiny macro organisms to sharks, rays and turtles. Mabul has a shallow reef profile with a sandy bottom and sea grass. It is recognized as one of the most exotic single diving destinations for small marine life in the world. Sipadan is lying in deep water just off the edge, so there are huge schools of mackerels, barracudas and other big fish. Some of the surrounding islands are in shallower water, but they are the best areas for macro diving.

Four dives a day really made it possible for us to fully discover the beauty of the Malaysian underwater environment. In addition to all the incredible diving over the week, we also got to meet the people living in the village on Mabul island. These people depend on the ocean as their main source of income. Boys automatically become fishermen as they grow up. They depend on the sea as a source of food and dive tourism as one of their only sources of income.

The experience that really stood out to me was visiting the turtle hatchery. I learned that intense conservation efforts by the Malaian government include limitations on diving activities in the area. They have helped to turn Sipadan into a sanctuary for turtles and other marine life. When we visited the turtle hatchery on Sipadan we were lucky to see protected baby turtles that had hatched the night before. This experience really opened my eyes to see how vulnerable baby turtles can be and how our actions can actually help them survive.

There is a lot people can do to contribute to the protection of resources like we experienced in Sipadan. To protect the future of this special place, many efforts are being made to designate Sipadan as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This trip really influenced my attitudes, beliefs, and biases of people towards the use of resources and environmental protection and I know that one day I will definitely return to Sipadan.

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Permalink Reply by Simon Nathan on September 16, 2011 at 2:03pm

The Sipadan trip really brought me out of the city and into nature. Out there on the crystal blue water and surrounded by picturesque islands I felt a real connection with the earth. I was reminded that I am part of an amazing living planet, which is something that is easy to forget living day to day in a city. I remember resting on Sipadan Island between dives and it rained briefly but heavily which really completed the sense of existing on a planet of nature and not just a planet of cities. Diving beneath surface with scores of turtles, sharks and an incredible diversity of creatures helped remind me that human beings are surrounded by countless other species. I really enjoyed seeing my first decorator crabs, frogfish, orangutan crabs and flamboyant cuttlefish.

Mabul Island is home to a people who are living in a close relationship with the environment as a fishing culture. I felt that the people of Mabul must have a greater respect of the environment than I do because they extract many of the resources they need directly from the environment themselves rather than sourcing from a chain of supply that disconnects consumers from the reality of resource extraction. The message this gives to me is that perhaps I need to be more mindful of my consumer choices and consider the multiple environmental resources it takes for me to consume something as simple as a can of coke.

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Permalink Reply by Rebekka Pentti on September 16, 2011 at 2:52pm

well done simon! :) i love it.

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Permalink Reply by Siv Hartvigsen on September 22, 2011 at 3:27am

"Extreme Diving Expedition -Sipadan" was the trip I signed up for with my diving club in Dubai, - and Yes, it was extreme in many ways.

Having only just become an Advanced Open Water Diver, I knew I was going to dive with more experienced divers, and I wanted to research a little in beforehand ; What was this place that everyone was bragging so much about, ??

Sabah, Malaysian Borneo - of Southern Asia offers the biggest bio-diversity of aquatic life, With sandy beaches, tropical islands, blue waters, coral reefs, and atolls - Sabah has several dive sites that is considered to be among the 10 top in the world.. and as my investigation goes on; prominent marine biologist - perhaps THE MARINE BIOLOGIST, Mr Jacques Costeau thought of Sipadan as a Jewel that he had not seen anywhere else in decades.. he called it a " untouched piece of art"

18 dives across 5 days was quite extreme, but yet the incredible mixture of anadraline from all the excitement, all the impressions, sounds, colours, overwhelming beauty just couldn't take the energy out of one.. From the countless turtles was swimming in harmony with us divers.. side by side, the sharks and barracudas was amazing… and the night dives, awww.. they where fabulous, all the creatures like langoustines, different crabs that came out at night, frogfish, cuttlefish, well the list goes on and on, and on..

My experience in Mabul/Sipadan was so huge, and made such and impact on me in so many ways. The scenery, the great group of people I dived with , the dive resort/ divemasters and their knowlege/passion, the local people, the food, the special atmosphere in the air, not to mention the shocking huge monitor lizards , and of course the Amazing dive sites. I found a special interest in macro diving looking at the smaller stuff around the corals. Coming close to the corals and the diversity of aquatic life made me interested in the corals. Being totally mezmorised, taking photos , studiying the fish, and all the other creatures I saw for the very first time in my life, - I wondered about their behaviour, why certain species was here or there, doing this or that.. I knew to little ( and I was running out of air… almost :)

The relatively shallow bottoms around the islands, and the great ecosystem produces still rich coral growth which is where we should applaud the Malaysian Government for the steps they are taking to preserve their coral reefs. Knowing that each of these different species takes years to grow.. and they are living creatures… that makes an very important part of the ecosystem. In Sipadan/ Mabul they have very strict rules for divers for not touching anything, (although divers damage in all does not count for the biggest damage to coral reefs), but they have also restricted their visitor passes to Sipadan with strict security (military operated) to prevent to much " stress / damage" on the reefs. Fishing is prohibited , anchoring is prohibited, and only out in the sea in designated places are you "allowed" to fish, and again with certain methods. In 2005 it became a World Heritage site by UNESCO, and Borneo Divers which was the Dive resort we stayed at is proud to continue, and participate in having this status by having PADI Project Aware Beach & Reef cleaning, and also run other Reef projecs for divers to collect data to gain awarness among divers to learn more aobut coral reef environment.

So this is a jewel, that's been taken care of and it's a paradise, a artwork of living aquatic life that all plays a part in a system that is natural. They all know their place, and even if we divers come visiting, - as long as we are stream-lined, glide, gaze, - they don't seem to mind us visiting their wold. But what we have to remember is that if we don't stop, and think…. we will loose all this.

We need to know that all is connected, and what has taken hundreds, thousands, even million of years to create or have belonged to our ecosytem.. - taking someimportant parts out of a system.. of course something will fail!!! It's a domino effect… overfishing, endangerd species, and direct polloution out in the sea will killi off acuatic life!! Global warming which leads to floods, rising of the sea, temprature rise and killing of coral reefs which means killing other aquatic life.. The system our oceans is complex but natural, we should learn from the aquatic life and energy cyclus, - as the know that the non-natural-way does not work!!! Killing our coral reefs means that we will loose our "rainforest" of the ocean, and 25 percent of all known fish species.

There is a song called " I left my heart in SanFransisco.. " , but i guess if I was to discribe how i feel after coming back is that I left my heart in Mabul/Sipadan. It was the most amazing experience ever, and I feel I learnt a lot. Most important it made me more aware of my own enviroment, and what I can do to create awareness . I have encourage my dive club to clean up the beach in Dubai for PADI Project aware, I I have since then actively read, got involved in several campaigns from different dive societies around the world, and I'm really keen to learn more so I can influenze others. I have also enrolled in research programmes, in which I will start collect data on dive sites ones I finish the training.

I feel previledged to have dived in Sipadan, - I will hopefully return soon.