"Pulau Mabul" a Pulau Mabul Travel Page by kelnsha

Situated within easy diving-boat distance of Pulau Sipadan, the diving resorts on Pulau Mabul was originally developed as a way of having more luxurious accommodation for ecological reasons together with overcrowding at Pulau Sipadan. However, divers making dives there in the day and at night soon realized that there was good muck diving and these sites have become diving destinations in their own right.

Slightly larger than Pulau Sipadan, with coconut palms, resorts, a police post and a semi-legal fishing village of Filipino Sea Gypsies on its northwestern beach. Pulau Mabul lies on the northern end of a larger reef on the edge of the continental shelf.

The diving is mainly sand and coral rubble covered in algae and the visibility can be as low as 3m (10ft) but every hole seems to be inhabited: Ghost Pipefish, frogfish, gobies, shrimps, Mandarinfish, Crocodilefish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, cowfish and numerous species of nudibranchs. Sea snakes are commonly seen underwater but can sometimes be found on land at night.