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Roach Reefs Resort is a a comfortable resort situated on a private, man-made tropical reef about 25 minutes by speed boat from Balung River, Tawau. The resort isn't luxurious but it provides basic and simple but comfortable and clean accommodation and home-cook local food. The food is great here!

Its location, right at the edge of the Borneo shelf boast of an abundance of coral and diverse marine life makes it a paradise for divers and snorkelers alike. Roach Reefs Resort offers diving and snorkeling trips to Roach Reefs, Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai. Roach Reefs Resort is located just 45 minutes away from the world renown Sipadan Island.

Although the dive sites here are not as dynamic and as vibrant as the dive sites at Sipadan, Roach Reefs does have its own attraction. Roach Reefs provides fantastic muck and macro dives with an array of critters and macro subjects to be discovered from elusive crabs and shrimps to camouflaging nudibranchs and shy gobys and other small fishes that avid divers may find them rare elsewhere. Popular critter subject for marine photographers include: The Orang-utan crab, Munida squat-lobster, Bubble-coral shrimp, Cleaner shrimps, Gobys, Gold-spec jawfish, Ghost pipefish, Blennys, Leaf scorpionfish, Lionfish, Crocodilefish and a variety of Nembrotha and Chomodoris nudibranch.

Roach Reefs' greatest attraction is the Table corals,  Staghorn corals and Carpet corals found in the Second Reef. This dive site has one of the healthiest and largest corals in the region. The growth and health of the corals here is as good if not better than the corals in Sipadan Island. In addition to that, the corals are located at very shallow depths (around 1 to 5 meters) and this make the corals easily accessible to snorkelers as well.

To sum it all, Roach Reefs is definitely a magnificent place that scuba divers and snorkelers should visit. It is one of the most underrated dive sites in our region and it certainly deserves more attention and recognition in the diving world. And to top it up, Roach Reefs Resort has 6 daily permits to Sipadan Island to provide you a diverse and complete dive and snorkeling adventure to the best spots in the Celebes Sea.


Pictures & review by: Roach Reefs Resort, Shim Yeeven & Allister Lee

There's a new attraction that's been generating rave reviews and attracting flocks of divers over to Mabul!

The already popular dive site: Paradise I (Sipadan Water Village Resort House-reef) is now even more popular thanks to the arrival of a resident school of squids and several friendly cuttlefish (Papuan & Broadclub) as well as over-sized Green turtles after the dive crew placed several new artificial reefs made of wood, iron and palms down to the shallow and sandy dive-site back in October 2011. The newly improved dive-site even has a small wreck that is now home to many small fishes like juvenile Angels, Butterflies and Bait fish.

The artificial reef is now a nesting ground for squids and cuttlefish and divers can see batches of eggs hidden in between the palms and in the wreck at any time of the day. Better sighting is around 4pm to 6pm each day where the cephalopods are most active.

By: Allister Lee

The Titan triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens) is the second largest species of the triggerfish (the biggest is the Stone triggerfish) and can grow up to 75cm in length. It is also known as: "Giant triggerfish", "Mustache triggerfish", "Old evil-eye" and "The biggest jerk of the sea". This species is commonly found in lagoons and reefs of the Indo-pacific usually at depths ranging from 5 - 15m. They can eat almost anything and their diet consist of seashells, crustaceans, urchins, small fish and corals. They are the workers of the reef, often being busy turning over rocks, stirring up sand by fanning its fins or by squirting water through its mouth and biting off pieces of branching coral. The Titan triggerfish is commonly found here at Sipadan.

They look menacing and are quite ugly, with long and strong teeth that jut out of their mouth, a big head, protruding eyes that can rotate independently and thick, tough scales. The body is so heavily armored that most spear-fishermen find it difficult to penetrate the Titan's thick body with their spear.

This infamous fish is notorious for its frequent attacks on divers and snorkelers. The bites while not venomous can inflict some serious injuries that may require medical attention. Others have claimed that the bites can cause an infection due to the ciguatoxin in their body. So if you've been bitten, it's best to go see a doctor for a jab. Usually, the Titan triggerfish will aim its attacks on a diver's fins with attacks on limbs and head less common. They don't always bite of course although sometimes unexplained attacks can occur but they will definitely attack during nesting season which is a few days after full moon. During this period they are extremely territorial and ferocious to any invaders.

When the Titan triggerfish attacks, it will charge at you continuously until you leave its territory. It is a good idea to keep your distance when you see a Titan triggerfish since they are generally short-sighted. Besides, their nest can be hard to spot so divers should keep their distance to avoid trespassing the Titan's territory. If you are under attack, don't panic. If you have a steel pointer, an underwater slate, camera or anything in hand, you can use it as a shield to defend yourself and to keep the Titan trigger at bay. Using your dive knife with the intention to injure the fish may not be the best idea, as you would need more luck than skill to wound it with your dive knife. Keep your eyes on it as you slowly and calmly swim away. Do not attempt to swim above it as you would still be in it's zone. Swim away horizontally as the zone they are protecting is an upward cone.

I've personally been attacked by the Titan triggefish several times and I have been quite lucky to escape unharmed. Some friends of mine have not been so lucky. One of them lost an earlobe, several of them had deep scars on the face, neck and limbs. Part of my fin was chewed off several times and I got stunned after a Titan triggerfish rammed the back of my head once, but afters years of diving, I've learned how to avoid and prevent an attack from happening and I find it way better than learning how to defend against an attack. We can prevent most attacks from happening if we know when the nesting season is, and how to keep our distance from it as well as how to swim away effectively from it's territory.


By: Allister

The Sunfish or Mola Mola was spotted on 12th August in the shallows in between Mabul Island and Kapalai Island. The Celebes Sea is not a spot where the Sunfish is expected. So seeing one here is extremely rare and the greatest surprise!

Cool Facts
- The Ocean sunfish is also known as the Mola Mola and in Japan it is called Mambo while in some parts in Europe it's called the Moonfish.

- The Sunfish is a pelagic creature and is the heaviest bony fish in the world with an average weight of 1000kg. The average size is 2-3 meters.

- This odd-shaped fish prefer cold (around 10 degree) and deep water (around 200m) but will rise to the surface to bask in the sun.

- Their main diet is jellyfish but they can settle with small squids and various crustaceans, fish eggs and larvae.

- Sunfish has a life span of at least 10 years.

- Despite its size, the Sunfish is docile and harmless to human. You can actually get close enough to touch it.

- The most common and most popular place to see the Sunfish is a dive site called Crystal Bay in Nusa Penida, Bali, between July and October.

Hammerheads at South Point Sipadan. This recent shot was taken at approximately 3:45pm on 27th of May 2011 at a depth of 30 meters. We were around 15 meters away from the coral reef when we stumbled upon this massive school of Scalloped Hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini).

Here's some basic information on the Scalloped Hammerheads:

- The scalloped hammerhead is a coastal pelagic species and it occurs over continental and insular shelves and in nearby deeper water.

- It is found in warm temperate and tropical waters, worldwide.

- They are usually deep-sea dwellers and can go to as deep as 500 meters but they can be expected at around 25 meters.

- They can grow up to 4.3 meters and weigh an amazing 150 kilograms.

- During the day they are more often found close to shore and at night they hunt further offshore. Diet includes sardines, mackerel, herring, fusiliers, snappers and even other sharks.

- Adults occur alone, in pairs or in small schools while young sharks occur in larger schools. This shark is often seen during the day in big schools, sometimes numbering hundreds. They are not considered dangerous and are normally not aggressive towards humans.

- Despite them being the most common species of all hammerheads, the Scalloped hammerhead shark is an endangered species. Humans are the main threat to the sharks. Shark-finning is rampant in tropical waters and in areas populated by the Scalloped hammerheads.

A friend recommended me this video and I think it is really great. The video was made recently and it shows you stuff that you can see when you dive at Sipadan.

In this video we have turtles and sharks, jacks, barracudas, batfish, the bumpheads and many other tropical fishes and the amazing coral formation and reef walls. We are not joking when we say that those are the amazing creatures you get to see on a daily basis.

You get to see what's shown in the video in your every dive! So check this video out guys! It would be great if you guys can show this video to your friends on facebook or twitter and any other social sites out there!

For more than twenty years now, Sipadan has been the primary destination for avid divers and snorkelers to spend their vacations in Sabah. After each dive, divers come up with gaping eyes and a big wide smile and they start talking about how epic the dive was. We've heard how divers glorified Sipadan on a daily basis, squealing in delight at the mention of turtles, sharks, jacks and barracudas.

Sipadan is also one of the leading destinations for underwater photographers of various level of experience to visit. From palm-sized compact cameras to oversized  DSLRs, a great deal of pictures taken are wide-angle shots, with bigger marine life and schooling fish as popular subject for photography. Little do we know, or care about the unique, bizarre and colorful critters that dwell in small holes and crevices, hiding amongst corals, sponges and anemones, waiting to be discovered. Although Mabul Island and Kapalai Island are dubbed as macro-havens and have one of the best muck-diving in the world, Sipadan shares with us, its own unique macro subjects to mesmerize us. Sipadan is an underrated macro-haven despite the abundance of small marine life. We can assure you that a critter-hunt at Sipadan is worth every minute!

Below are some pictures of macro subjects and critters you can surely see if you would pay a little bit of time and more attention to your surroundings. We hope that this blog post helps to generate some of your interest in these small marine organisms. Maybe one day soon you will be telling people how awesome the Frogfish, Leafish and Gobys are :)