Best Dive Sites
Anemone Reef (Scubasa Reef)
By boat - All divers
is a shallow reef (6 to 9 m) covered with soft corals and anemones. During August, migrating green turtles can be found here.
Asmarqa Point
By boat - All divers
Atago Maru Wreck
By boat - All divers
The Atago Maru Wreck is a second world war Japanese merchant ship and lies just off Lutong (north of Miri). The 105 meter ship is sitting upright with the top deck just 9 meter from the surface. Most of the hull is covered with corals. Visibility is not always good due to silt, but it teems with…
Bakkungan Kecil
By boat - All divers
Very good corals structures.
Barracuda Point
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
This dive site has a great barracuda shoal (between 500 and 1000). You may have dream about pictures of fish shoals taken from above... here it is a geat place to live this!
"From Big Drop (800 m depth) we took boat to Barracuda Point, where jack and barracuda schools were waiting for us. The…
Batu Suleiman
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
30 metres at its shallowest, dropping to 45 metres. The water is normally clear and many fish are found here.
Clement Reef
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Nice table corals, staghorn corals, brain corals and sponges can be founds. A lot of seaslugs and lionfish.
Coleman Shoal
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Coral gardens
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Great living corals and marine life.
Crack Reef
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Crack reef and Navigator line are two dive sites very close from each other. So you can dive both on the same dive. Sealife is also great on this side of the island: Hammerhead sharks, Black Coral, Lionfishes++, and a coral garden between 15m and 8m for the deco!
Crocodile Avenue
By boat & from shore - All divers
Nice muck dive. Crocodilefish, Seahorses, Snake eel, Ghost fish... A very nice dive for macro.
D Wall
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
A great wall that only breaks at 40m before running up to 2000m ! Very nice corals, sponges and gorgonians. Sharks, Rays, Eels, Mantas, and deeper down some hammerhead sharks.
Dogtooth Lair
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Very similar to 'the point' nearby. Large tuna shoals, sharks.
Dunlop Corner
By boat - All divers
Eel Garden
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Blue ribbon eels, mantis shrimps, batfish...
Eve's Garden
By boat - All divers
One of the best shallow reefs as it is large and varies from 6 to18 metres and has many species found upon it. It is covered in healthy corals. There are about 15 other shallow reef formations.
Gorgonian forest
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
A wall from 15m to 40m with gorgonians, jacks, and various sharks including hammerhead sharks...
Grouper Patch
By boat - All divers
a rocky outcrop (18 m max. depth) covered with hard and soft corals and - of course - inhabited by several giant groupers.
Hanging Gardens
By boat - All divers
cracks, black coral, barrel sponges and some tiny sea slugs.
House Reef
By boat & from shore - All divers
House Reef
By boat & from shore - All divers
Muck dive, looking for camouflaged creatures: Seahorses, Ghost pipefish, leaf fish etc.
Katori Maru
By boat - All divers
The Katori Maru is a world war II shipwreck located about 50 km from the mainland. It was a Japanese troop carrier which was sunk by British aircraft. The wreck is not covered much and visibility is poor at 5 to 8 meter.
Kenyalang/ Tyre Reef
By boat - All divers
There is also an artificial reef, built by the Malaysian Fisheries Department. Kenyalang or also known Tyre reef, is a large piece of redundant oil rig teeming with small fish. 13m to 22m max depth. A surprisingly nice dive.
Langkayan Wreck
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Lobster lairs
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Nice dive with lots of cracks with lobsters. Sharks and mantas are living inhabitants of this part of the reef.
Lobster Wall
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Nice wall with a cave full of lobsters. Same inhabitants than the other dive sites.
Mabini Padre (Blue Water Wreck)
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
This wreck lies northeast of Kuraman Island and is 34 km from Labuan. It gets its name from the clear 'blue' waters it lies lies in and of all the wrecks in the area this one has the best visibility. The Mabini Padre is a large Philippines fishing trawler, which caught fire and sank in 1981. The…
Mabul House Reef
Shore - Really easy
House reef in Mabul is outstanding, either you are in the Sipadan Water Village, in the homestay or in the old oil rig. Usually these places offer free diving here with their packages and is crazy not to use it.
You can find lots of lion fishes, crocodile fishes, stone fish, small barracudas,…
Mandarin Valley
By boat - All divers
A dreaming site for underwater macro photographers!
Manukan Reef
By boat - All divers
Nice dive site with barracudas and turtles. Just take care of the boat traffic!
Mid Reef
By boat - All divers
Mid Reef is situated east of Pulau Manukan and is a submerged reef covered with hard coral, sponges and anemones. Click here for a photo of a Marble mouth Frogfish (Lophiocharon lithinostomus) found there.
Mosquito Wreck
By boat - CMAS * / OW
This wreck was part of the Japanese Mosquito Fleet from WWII. It lays on her side, full of jacks. I've seen my first whale shark here !!! Unforgetable.
MV Tung Hwuang (The Cement Wreck)
By boat - CMAS * / OW
The Tung Huang is a freighter that sank while transporting cement to Brunei for the Sultan's new palace on 25 September 1980. It hit the Samarang Bank and sank as it tried to reach Labuan for repairs. The wreck now lies east of Kuraman Island and just 21 km from Labuan. The vessel, 92m long, 15m…
North Point
By boat - CMAS * / OW
North Sulug Reef
By boat - All divers
Great corals, Jack and barracuda shoals. Corals are very nice, ideal for macro. The island is gorgeous.
Police Bay (Bulijong Bay)
By boat - All divers
This dive site is located in the north of Pulau Gaya. It is a coral garden with staghorn corals and a slope with sandy bottom. Mostly small reef fishes, some stingrays
Pulau Talang Talang
By boat - All divers
lying off the mouth of Sematan River is a protected turtle sanctuary for green, hawksbill and olive ridley turtles.
Ray Point
By boat - All divers
Viz around 5m. Bigger fish than on the northern side. Some gorgonians, groupers, lionfish and of course Bluespotted ribbontail rays :)
Ron Reef
By boat - All divers
Nice reef sealife. Not as many big fishes than in the south dive sites, but very colourful
Runnaway
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Very nice dive, the viz was 50m+. Sharks was abundant: whitetip reef sharks, hammerhead sharks and grey reef sharks. Nice dive.
Santak
By boat - All divers
Shaped like a dogs bone and covered in large Gorgonian fans at the west end. 25 – 30 metres deep. Some of these reefs are 800 metres long and 100 + metres wide and would take several dives to explore.
Sapi Jetti
- All divers
Good place for both snorkelling and scuba. Marine life is great: it consists of a sandy area where you find a lot of special animals like fingered dragonets, flounders, gobies, cuttlefish and even the occasional sea snake.
Scubasa Drop-off (Tukay drop off)
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
is the reef furthest from shore, about 24-28 km (40mins by boat). The reef consist of several longish strips with a wall which drops off from 20 to 45 meter. Its possible to see reef sharks, napoleon wrasses, groupers, schooling mackerels and barracudas and turtles. During certain times of the year…
Sea Fan Garden
By boat - All divers
lies between 15 and 20m with many gorgonian sea fans and sea whips.
Seaventure Dive Platform
By boat - CMAS * / OW
A lot of nudi, Crocodillefish, Stonefish and all that you can dream on, of small creatures :o)
Sharks cave
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
The cave entrance is 25 m deep. Here you must find a lot of different sharks: Leopard sharks, Whitetip sharks, Nurse sharks, Grey reef sharks and Hammerhead sharks.
Snapper Ledge
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Take care of the current. It may be strong here!
This spot viz was outstandig: More than 50m...
South Edgell Patch
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Mantas if you are lucky! We were not :(
South Point
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
You can see the same barracuda shoal than in Barracuda point. Take care of the current.
Sri Gadong Wreck
By boat - All divers
is a small 30m cargo ship lying in 20m on a sandy bottom, about 40min boat ride south of Miri. Also there are two barges and the bow of an unknown vessel (believed to be an oil tanker sunk in WW2.
SS De Klerk (Australian Wreck)
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Until recently this ship thought to have been sunk by the Royal Australian Air force, has now been identified as the Dutch vessel SS De Klerk. Scuttled by the Dutch in 1942 but salvaged by the Japanese and renamed Imabari Maru, she hit a mine and sunk 23km southwest of Labuan in 1944. She now lies…
Staghorn Crest
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Great coral garden in the shallows and a plateau near 15 meters deep.
Stingray City
By boat - All divers
The Jetty
By boat - All divers
One of the best beach dive of the world!
The Point
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Probably the best dive of Layang-Layang. The visibility is outstanding... Don't miss it!
The Rock
By boat - All divers
Not as nice as the other dive sites in the area. But good enough for a 2nd or 3rd dive of the day. Viz can go down to 4m depending on current. No fish around for days if there was dolphins flyby. Occasional sighting of turtles.
The Tunnel
By boat - All divers
There are several cracks, one of the is named the tunnel. The best is just around 15m deep. It's not worth to dive deeper here. Very nice corals (including numberous lettuce corals) and sponges.
The Valley
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Like most of Layang-Layang dive, The Valley is an oustanding dive site. A must for underwater photographers: from macro to large pelagic such as mantas, hammerhead sharks, turtles etc.
Turtle Cavern
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
The entrance of the cavern is on a sandy floor at 18m deep. When you go inside, the cave go down to 21m and then become smaller. There is a marlin skeleton inside (put there by a resort diver!) If you follow the left hand side of the cavern you will end up in front of a tunnel. The tunnel connects…
Turtle Patch
By boat - All divers
Turtles :) But also White Tip Sharks, parrotfish shoals and nice table corals.
Turtle Tomb
From shore - CMAS *** / DiveMaster
Turtle Tomb is a small cave system behind turtle cavern.
If you follow the left hand wall of the cavern to the end and swim arount the big rock in your way you will end up in front of a small tunnel big enough for one diver to swim through. Behind that tunnel a cave opens with several side…
USS Salute (American Wreck)
By boat - CMAS * / OW
This World War II US Navy minesweeper lies around 24 kilometers south of Labuan in roughly 30 meters of water. The USS Salute was built in Seattle, in 1943. It was first put into service in Hawaii in 1944 escorting convoys between Pearl Harbor and several ports in the Far East. Later it was involved…
West Ridge
By boat - All divers
Black corals, turtles, groupers etc.
Whitetip Avenue
By boat - CMAS * / OW
Below 30m, there are a lot of sharks (whitetip and grey sharks) and some very nice sea fans and black corals.
Wrasse Strip
By boat - CMAS ** / AOW
Another very nice dive: Mantas, Whitetip Sharks, Turtles, beautifull sponges and gorgonians...
Wreck Point
By boat - CMAS * / OW
The wreck is no longer a 'wreck'. Just few scatterled iron stuffs on the sea floor. But no matters, the sealife is here incredible!
Whitetip Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks, but also Black Corals, Barracudas...
