Blue-striped Fangblenny
"This is gonna be epic!" some readers might say when they see this title. Once again, I'm just trying to lure more readers to read this after the awesome success of my old Mabul VS Kapalai post... Don't kill me please :P
Mating pair of Halgerda Batangas
Seaventures
Situated at the Celebes Sea located just in front of the now very busy and resort-populated not to mention famous Mabul Island is the one and only Seaventures, a "Dive-Rig" providing us the most unique and different dive-holiday experience ever. Not only do you get to actually sleep, dine, relax and move around in an oil rig, you also get a perfect view of Mabul, the beautiful sunset and the open sea plus awesome macro dives just down under this spacious what I like to call it, a 'rigsort'.
I love the food here, especially their BBQ seafood dinner. Seaventures have always been misunderstood and unfavored by many visitors at Mabul but what I can assure you is that for those who have stayed with Seaventures they will agree that diving with them is very, very easy and convenient. They provide daily dives around Mabul, Kapalai and Sipadan and also with the famous PADI Course Director, Joseph Chung managing the dive operations and education, you can be sure that you are diving with among the most experienced guides around the area. If you need a friendly and helpful staff to help you with other matters unrelated to diving, seek the young and energetic Janet Lim. Like most dive centers and resorts, Seaventures offer the same facilities, most notable is an underwater video service by the famous Scubazoo.
Most appealing to many of us avid divers is the house-reef. Despite its lack of natural corals and reef, the house-reef have one of the most effective and successful artificial reefs now serving as safe homes for numerous rarely seen and loved fish species. The very popular Pygmy seahorse and Frogfish are always sighted here and this house reef houses easily more than thirty species of Gobies and Nudibranchs as well as other crustaceans. Despite the small size of this dive site, you will be amazed at how big the fishes here can grow. The Giant Morays here are humongous, so are their Groupers, Big-eyes and Soldiers and you can also get to see the big school of Barracudas, Batfish and Fusiliers and big fat Bumphead Parrotfishs joining other reef fishes to feed on barnacles, algae and corals that grow on the rig's eroded pillars. For those interested in fish behavior and variety, look no further. Seaventures house-reef is the best place to be. For photographers, macro lens is recommended although you might not want to miss the chance to get a fantastic wide-angle shot of a vortex of resident Barracudas as well.
Slim-lined barracuda
For more info on the resort, check out their website: http://www.seaventuresdive.com/
Silam
Located in Darvel Bay or also known as the Lahad Datu Bay, Silam is not a popular destination among tourists and was never featured in any dive magazines before. I won't go as far as to say that this is another virtually untouched virgin reef since Silam has always been a very popular dive spot among locals for more than thirty years. The area is recuperating from illegal fish bombing and as of late local divers have expressed worry on the growing fish-farming industry, having a possibility in reducing availability of potential dive sites.
There are several known dive sites, each with their own history, like the earliest dive site namely Lam's Point and the Silam Wreck where a large cargo ship sank many years ago. The most popular one is the Qing-Qing House-reef, privately owned by Mr. Liew, one of the few scuba pioneers in Lahad Datu and managed and promoted by good friends of mine, Chris Lo who is a very devoted macro-photographer himself along with Steven Soong, the best dive master in town.
The history of Darvel Bay dates back twenty thousand years ago where early inhabitants used limestone caves for prehistoric burials. In the nineteenth century, the bay was a traditional haunt for pirates and home of Datu Kudunding, an infamous pirate leader and a local hero to some folks. For more info please see wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darvel_Bay
The dives around Silam are all macro-dives and most of the dive sites are sandy and muddy-bottom as well as mangrove swamps making it the perfect home for Jawfish, a variety of Gobys and Dartfishs, Blennys, Pipefishs, colorful Nudibranchs and other macro subjects. Shrimps and crabs are abundant here and in Qing-Qing house-reef, a large group of resident Pajama cardinalfishs are always there to amaze you. Various species of Scorpionfish, Stonefish and other poisonous creatures lurk around the place so divers need to be extra careful. Three milimeters full suits are recommended here to protect divers from jellyfish, plankton and other stinging fishes as well as providing better insulation and warmth since the dives here can be somewhat cold at times with large areas of termoclines. Do expect for cool surprises like the Flamboyant cuttlefish, Blue-ring octopus, Seamoth and Seahorse to appear during your dives.
There are currently no active and fully facilitated dive resorts in the area but as for accommodation wise, divers can just stay at various hotels and dine in town. There is however a private resort owned by Mr. Liew located uphill just next to Qing-Qing house-reef in Silam and divers who made proper arrangement through authorized agents namely Wonderful Water Diving Services and Aquatastic will be offered dive packages that include transfers, accommodation, meals, guided dives, scuba gears and other related services. For more info on Silam, feel free to contact me.
Flamboyant cuttlefish and Seamoth by Chris Lo.
An amazing picture of a pair of Crinoid squatlobsters. Photo by Chris Lo.
More pictures of Silam can be found at Chris profile in Facebook albums titled My Macro and QiQi Resort
