Mabul Island

Venue	Celebes Sea
Belongs to state of	Sabah

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 2 square kilometre reef. It is more correctly recognised now that the reason for the quality of the MUCK Diving is simply a result of overfishing uses of cyanide and dynamite by the local people of this area.

Mabul is arguably one of the riches single destinations for exotic small marine life anywhere in the world. 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. The sight of harlequin shrimp feeding on sea stars and boxer crabs waving their tiny anemone pompoms are just a small example of the endless species of crustaceans.

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. It would be quicker to list the species not found at Mabul - crazy critters are in abundance at this magical macro site!