Mabul and Kapalai - Mabul & Kapalai
What a great combination it is to add the macro wonders of Mabul and Kapalai to the big stuff of Sipadan! Diving in at its core, Mabul and Kapalai are all about the small, the strange, and the camouflaged. You’ll spend your dives finning slowly over sandy flats and shallow reefs, eyes peeled for ribbon eels poking from the substrate or a well-hidden frogfish. We’ve spotted seahorses clinging to bits of seagrass and, if you time it right at dusk, mandarinfish putting on their mating display. It’s a photographer's dream, suiting divers who love to linger and really observe the smaller inhabitants of the reef.
- Location
- Mabul & Kapalai, Malaysia, Southeast Asia
- Coordinates
- 4.240000, 118.640000
Marine Protected Area: Sipadan Island Park
Nearby Dive Sites in Mabul & Kapalai
- AL MALYN - 45m (wreck)
- AWAS
- BANOWATI - 10m (wreck)
- Barracuda Point
- BUNGA INDAH - 5m (wreck)
- CAHAYA MACCOLILOLOS - 9m (wreck)
- Chanel
- Check Point
- Cleaning Station - 10-25m (reef)
- Coral gardens (reef)
- Coral Slope - 5-20m (reef)
- Corner Reef (reef)
- Creepy garden - 5-18m (reef)
- Crocodile Avenue
- Danawan reef (reef)
Nearest Dive Centres to Mabul and Kapalai
- Bigfin Divers Semporna - ["PADI"]
- Divers Armada Borneo Sdn Bhd - ["PADI"]
- Go Aquatic Semporna - ["PADI"]
- Mussah Poteh Holiday SDN BHD - ["PADI"]
- Nemo and Friends
- Seabunny Scubacations Sdn Bhd
Marine Life in Mabul & Kapalai
Home to 127 recorded species including 77 reef fish, 28 hard corals, 8 seagrass & algae, 3 sharks & rays, 3 clams & mussels, 2 other.
Notable Species
- seagrass (Halophila ovalis) - Seagrass & Algae
- Thin birdsnest coral (Seriatopora hystrix) - Hard Corals
- halodule (Halodule uninervis) - Seagrass & Algae
- Staghorn coral (Acropora aculeus) - Hard Corals
- Staghorn coral (Acropora caroliniana) - Hard Corals
- cymodocea (Cymodocea rotundata) - Seagrass & Algae
- thalassia (Thalassia hemprichii) - Seagrass & Algae
- Staghorn coral (Acropora longicyathus) - Hard Corals
- Staghorn coral (Acropora humilis) - Hard Corals
- Fluorescence grass coral (Galaxea fascicularis) - Hard Corals
- Redtail Scad (Decapterus kurroides) - Reef Fish
- Salmon (Elagatis bipinnulata) - Reef Fish
- Ghost Cardinalfish (Nectamia fusca) - Reef Fish
- Species code: Ea (Enhalus acoroides) - Seagrass & Algae
- Pectinia coral (Pectinia alcicornis) - Hard Corals
- Staghorn coral (Acropora selago) - Hard Corals
- Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)
- Species code: Hp (Halodule pinifolia) - Seagrass & Algae
- Stony coral (Porites nigrescens) - Hard Corals
- royal red prawn (Haliporoides sibogae) - Crabs & Lobsters