Mabul island 马布尔岛

                                               Mabul island 马布尔岛

Explore the Wonders of Sabah Malaysia

Mabul is an island off the south-eastern coast of Sabah in Malaysia. It first became popular due to its proximity to Sipadan island. Few years back, it has gained its recognition as one of the best “muck diving” sites in the world. Mabul Island is a small oval shaped island surrounded by sandy beaches and perched on the northwest corner of a larger two square kilometer reef. Mabul is arguably one of the richest single destinations for exotic small marine life anywhere in the world.[citation needed] Flamboyant cuttlefish, blue-ringed octopus, mimic octopus and bobtail squids are just a few of the numerous types of cephalopods to be found on Mabul’s reef. Many types of gobies can be found including the spike-fin goby, black sail-fin goby and metallic shrimp goby. Frogfish are everywhere -giant, painted and clown frogfish are regularly seen along with the almost the whole scorpion fish family. Mabul Island, just 20 minutes north of Sipadan Island and the last island still on the Borneo shelf before the ocean floor drops to some 800m, has been named in many diving magazines for its popularity amongst macro photographers who look for the really rare creatures. Mabul is home to a small village – generally fishing and boat building, as well as being the location of at least five dive resorts, and also smaller dive lodges. Mabul diving gives macro photographers some great opportunities to capture some extremely rare ecological species which have carved a niche for themselves in the underwater world around here. Mabul is arguably one of the richest single destinations for exotic small marine life anywhere in the world. Mabul offers a very different kind of diving compares with Sipadan. Muck diving is a term used to describe limited visibility dives at shallow sites with usually sandy bottoms. Where in Sipadan coral reef, steep walls and pelagic life are the major attarction, over here at Mabul the bizarre, tiny and unusual marine life hiding at the sea bed are waiting to be discovered. Beautiful sandy beaches surround the oval shaped island, and guest can easily walk around the island in less than an hour, and during low tide Mabul Island seems to be bigger as the shoreline extends further out to the sea. Wooden houses, on stilts with atap roof top are inhabited by the Bajaus, can be seen at numerous spot on the Island. The Bajaus are traditional fishermen and with their generations of pass down knowledge on the Celebes Sea.