Mabul Island is located 25km north of Sipadan Island and is a resort base for divers going to Sipadan. However the quality of diving at Mabul should not be overlooked while you are there because there is some amazing "macro" or "muck" diving at Mabul.

What is muck diving? Muck diving gets it's name from the fact that dives are in mucky water, often shallow, silty water that many would not consider ideal for diving. Visibility is often poor. Dives are often around piers, junk and dead coral rubble. Dives are often in shallow water close to shore.

The reason divers choose to dive in these areas is because of the incredible amount of small, weird and wonderful critters that live in these environments. Critters like pygmy seahorses, ornate ghostpipefish, manderinfish, mimic octopus, blue ringed octopus, frogfish, leaf fish, nudibranchs and so on.

These small species are hard to find and require a trained eye but there are few places in South East Asia which are particularly rich in these little gems. Bali and the Lembeh Strait have some great places to muck dive but many divers are converted to muck diving around Mabul or Kapalai.

The majority of divers visit these resorts with only on thing on their mind, big fish. But they soon begin to appreciate the wonders of muck diving when their expert divemasters start pointing out amazing creatures that they've never seen before. Continued >>