Slicence: Welcome to Mataking Island

We were picked up from Tawau at 7:30am and driven to Semporna (slightly to the east along the coast) for a 9:30am boat time to Mataking island.

The boat trip took about 45 minutes but all the traveling was worth it - the island is a beautiful picturesque tropical island paradise. 

The island is small (you can walk from one side of the island to the other in 2 minutes) and well looked maintained. 

After we arrived, setteled into our rooms we wondered from our rooms to the beach (a good 30 second walk). 

The water around the island is exceptionally clear and the 'house reef' (the reef that surrounds the island) is perfect for snorkelling. 

In fact you don't really need to swim at all, the reef is so shallow that you can just stand up and stick your head under the water to see the most amazing underwater world.

After lunch Sammy took to his first dive. 

He decided not to take his camera as this was his first dive in a new place with new equipment and guides. 

However this turned out to be mistaken given the incredible sightings that he saw.

Firstly he spotted the islands 'pet' baracuda (named charlie), which was great as they are an impressive fish. 

The next incounter with a fish was a little more intimidating as both Sammy and the guide proceeded to be attacked by a trigger fish. 

The trigger fish is probably about the size of a plate and possesses some pointy teeth. 

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Slicence: Welcome to Mataking Island

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Sabah resorts lament shortage of Chinese-speaking dive masters, staff

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s diving industry faces a shortage of Chinese-speaking dive masters and supporting staff to cater to the increasing number of Chinese tourists.

This poses a problem for Chinese tourists, who make up 60 to 80 per cent of the customers in the diving industry, to communicate their need and wants, or their complaints. Industry players said the shortage is caused by the reluctance of local Chinese to go to work on the islands.

Suzette Harris, managing director of Seaventures Dive Rig, who runs a rig on a relatively remote location, said many of her staff complained that it was hard working on a rig because they have no place to go to after work and so they get bored after one or two months there.

She said providing food and accommodation for her employees meant that the workers get to keep their salary, but even this could not entice workers to work on a rig.

Harris said this after a meeting between the Ministry of Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment and the Semporna Resort Operators Association (SROA) here yesterday.

SROA has sought the ministry’s assistance, in particular to allow the dive industry to employ workers from China, to fill the void. Harris pointed out that it is not easy to get China workers here because of the procedures involved.

While westerners could stay here for three months on a tourist visa, China workers could only stay for a month in Sabah on a tourist visa, which does not allow employers sufficient time to apply for a work visa for the Chinese workers, Harris said.

Meanwhile, Sophia Sie, a representative from the Reef Dive Resort on Mataking Island, hoped that the government could give the industry some leeway on this matter if foreign Chinese employees were recommended to a specific resort.

Continue reading at: Sabah resorts lament shortage of Chinese-speaking dive masters, staff

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A trip to explore new diving spots in Sabah

Sipadan Island in Sabah needs little introduction as a diving site of extraordinary appeal and is especially renowned for big fish encounters, wall diving and drift dives. However, the popularity of this "untouched piece of art" as Jacques Costeau once remarked, has overshadowed other equally fascinating dive sites in the area.

In a bid to introduce and promote other dive sites in Sabah, Tourism Malaysia and Sabah Tourism Board are organising a special familiarisation trip for 19 local and international media and tour agents from December 14 - 18. According to a press release, the participants are from Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Through the trip, it is hoped that the media participants can highlight these dive destinations in their publications while tour agents can create new diving packages to these locations.

The trip aims to open the eyes of the participants to other lesser known, but equally beautiful dive sites in Sabah such as Si Amil, Denawan, Mantabuan, Sibuan and Bohey Dulang.

As many as 101 dive spots have been identified by a scout team of avid divers who hope to bring greater attention to Sabah's other dive site jewels.

These sites are listed in the Sabah 101 Dive Treasures brochure, which also promotes Sabah's many islands such as Mataking, Pom Pom, Sibuan, Siamil and Pulau Tiga.

The brochure also provides a directory of dive operators, resorts and a map of diving locations in Sabah. It can be obtained for free from Tourism Malaysia's Tourist Information Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Sabah.

For more information contact Ms Trecey J Tojuka, Tourism Malaysia Sabah at +088 211 732/248 698 or email, tracey@tourism.gov.my or visit www.tourism.gov.my.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin Sunday
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Mataking Island is full of delights

Mataking Island is indeed full of royal delights.

A 45-minute speedboat- ride from Semporna in eastern Sabah, crossing aquamarine seas and passing by sea gypsy villages on stilts, brings me to the warm embrace of a welcome band on the jetty of the Reef Dive Resort, Mataking Island.

While having my buffet lunch, which included a delightfully fragrant rosemary roast chicken, I am asked by the staff to add one more aroma from a choice of lemongrass, avocado, passion fruit, chempaka flower or frangipani. Not to the food of course; rather which oil I want to infuse my villa with.

My first dive here is led by Luke Cox, resort manager and master scuba instructor, who warns me to look out for Charlie, the 2m-long resident barracuda.

“The house reef is his feeding ground,” smiles Cox. “After eating, he hangs around, and smaller wrasse clean his teeth for him. At night, he sleeps underneath the jetty. He eats, gets cleaned and sleeps, what a life!”

It has been seven years since I first came to Mataking, and the house reef has indeed grown with both coral and fish life. Clouds of damsel and razor fish, plus an assortment of groupers and unicorn fish, greet me soon after entry into the blue waters made brilliant beneath the afternoon sun. But these are just the warm-up for some 400 silvery jacks closely packed into a stunningly shimmery formation.

And under the jetty’s shade, there are more rich pickings — bat and butterfly fish, groupers and yet more jacks. What’s also interesting here is that the numerous concrete Reef Balls (aimed at encouraging coral growth), placed here about four years ago, are showing encouraging signs of coral growth.

Diving is just part of the attraction here. The island lies on the very edge of Sabah’s waters, close to the marine border with the Philippines, and truly has an “away from it all” feeling. On past trips, I had walked around the whole island in under an hour and felt as if I was a ship-wrecked Robinson Crusoe.

This time, after my dive, I take a 10 minute stroll to the island’s tip and am surrounded on three sides by gently lapping waves, the perfect place to just breathe, listen and BE.

I return there a few hours later after dinner and feel as if Moses had parted the Red Sea, as a sinuous sandbar has magically emerged at low tide, creating a natural causeway to the adjacent small island of Mataking Kecil.

The sea is now grey and strangely silent, seemingly asleep in mirror-like tranquillity as it is bathed in the soft glow of a full moon . . .

My dive the next morning is at a site called Frog Fish Farm. Amelia Ng, the resident marine biologist who doubles up as a dive master, leads us to see two lobsters with 1m long antennae, two moray eels and a turtle. She has a knack for spotting impossibly small sea critters camouflaged amidst soft corals, such as several 1cm-wide orang utan crabs, so named for their orange “hair”.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Mataking Island is full of delights
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Mataking Island's annual reef day and reef check

TAWAU: The Reef Dive Resort at Mataking Island held its annual reef day and reef check, themed ‘Communities working together’, recently.They welcomed students of four schools to the island to partake in an exciting combination of education, beach and underwater clean-ups and fun.

They were from SMK Datuk Panglima Abdullah, SMK Kabogan II, Humana and Sekolah Menengah Visi school A team of police officers based on the island, the army at Pandanan Island, WWF and Reef Check Malaysia also joined in the activity.

Mataking Resort manager Luke Cox said this was a shining example of operators, agencies and the community working together as one in order to make the area a better place.

“Work at the resort was combined with a strong element of fun as the children from the schools took part in snorkeling around the island and an island treasure hunt.

“Three islands were involved in the big clean-up which included Mataking Besar, Mataking Kecil and for the first time ever, Pandanan Island,” he said.

The marine biologist for the resort, Amelia Ng, disclosed that a staggering 745kg of plastic and other wastes were removed from the three islands, which was marginally less than last year’s event.

“We cleaned more islands this year and recovered less waste. We believe this is due to our increasing daily patrols to keep our beaches clean and the local community more aware of what damage can potentially be done to the aquatic world around us by irresponsible rubbish disposal,” she added.

During this same period, Mataking became the first Reef Check Certified Facility in Sabah. They will now embark on a programme of surveys of coral reefs around Mataking and surrounding islands, to monitor their health and how they are changing.

Continue reading at: Mataking Island's annual reef day and reef check
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Dive in to Malaysian Borneo

James Bond and Jacqueline Bisset have a lot to answer for. Most people learn to dive because of a love of aquatic life. I, on the other hand, wanted to learn because I was mesmerised as a kid by all those underwater scenes in Bond films, where Sean Connery or Roger Moore would rip off baddies' masks, harpoon them, then rescue the girl and escape to safety through turquoise waters. That, and when Bisset emerged breathless from the sea in the classic 1977 film The Deep.

From that moment on, I was officially hooked.

So after decades of procrastination, where better to take my first step — the Padi (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water Diver course — than off the east coast of the Malaysian state of Sabah, on the northern tip of Borneo, where islands such as Mataking and Sipadan regularly top the expert polls of the best place to scuba dive in the world?

After a three-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur across the South China Sea to Tawau, then a one-hour bus journey to the fishing village of Semporna, followed by a 45-minute boat ride, I am finally at the five-star Mataking Reef Dive Resort, where I shall be doing my four-day Open Water Padi scuba diving course.

I am met at the jetty with garlands and songs, and the island's beauty is immediately overwhelming, like something out of a waking dream.

At night, as I drink in the crimson-tinged sunset from the veranda of my beach-front deluxe chalet, sea gently lapping below me, I feel like a brown Robinson Crusoe, and am reminded that life really is beautiful.

Now I am ready for the Padi course. Day one involves a morning of theory, with some basic principles and guidelines. Even with my rudimentary grasp of physics, I am able to understand the essentials — buoyancy and pressure — and learn a few technical terms, such as BCD (buoyancy control device), SPG (submersible pressure gauge) and regulator (the mouthpiece you breathe through). I also learn the two most important rules of scuba diving: breathe continuously and never hold your breath.

My instructor Neo takes me out for my first confined water dive. After the requisite buddy check, I give the OK hand signal, and wade gingerly into the sea. The next morning starts with more theory, hand signals and currents, interspersed with two more confined water dives, to acquire, practise and master a few set skills, like how to clear the mask underwater, how to signal that I am out of air, and also how to perform a controlled emergency ascent.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Dive in to Malaysian Borneo
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Boat sunk at Mataking to build up ecosystem

Tawau: A former Norwegian fishing vessel, MV Sipadan Mermaid, was sunk near Reef Dive Resort at Mataking Island off Semporna on September 26.

The dive team started to flood the ship at 11.15am and the vessel began to sink at the assigned position after 55 minutes.

Also present during the event were international guests from WWF, as well as local government authorities.

The Resort's Managing Director, David Sie, said the sinking of this new wreck will help in building up the fragile ecosystem at the island whilst easing pressure involving diving activities off Sipadan Island.

"We hope to see new life on this reef within a matter of months as it creates a new home for many different types of marine life," he said.

The Mermaid is the Reef Dive Resort's second artificial reef. The vessel originally started her life as a Norwegian fishing boat and was responsible for many successful trips, including along the coasts of Malaysia.

Continue reading at: Boat sunk at Mataking to build up ecosystem

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