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A great find: Giant frogfish - Antennarius
commersonii . |
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Vol.3 No.1
Features
Tunku Abdul Rahman Parks
Pearl of Kota Kinabalu
Text and pictures by Adi & Mala Gehri of www.abcdivers.com
Kota Kinabalu is well known as the international gateway for divers
eager to sample the underwater delights of the famous Sipadan, Kapalai
and Mabul Islands off the coast of Sabah. However the city itself
(just 15-20 minutes away by boat) has its own marine attraction that
is frequently overlooked. I grew up in this area, and the enchanting
and captivating Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (TARP) holds many underwater
memories for me; my first crocodilefish, the biggest sea snake I've
ever seen, a swimming frogfish and an aggressive tomato anemonefish
defending its home.
On a recent visit home with my husband, Adi, we took time to explore
my early underwater playground. Not only did the reefs serve up their
delicacies but as a bonus, a local dive operator Absolute Scuba (previously
known as Beach Bums Borneo) based at the Shangri-la's Tanjung
Aru Resort took us diving to two Japanese WW II wrecks located a couple
of hours from the city.
The Park
Covering about 4,929 hectares of land and sea off the Western Coast,
the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park is Sabah's second most
popular park, after Kinabalu. Consisting of five beautiful islands,
Gaya, Manukan, Mamutik, Sulug and Sapi, the park is popular for
day trips with locals and visitors alike.
The beautiful white sand beaches are great places to relax, as the
gentle sea breeze cools the air. For the more adventurous, there
are nature trails to explore, where you can hope to see a great
variety of birds such as swallows, hornbills, sea eagles, terns
and waders. There are also macaques (mostly on Gaya and Sapi), monitor
lizards, squirrels and, more rarely, the bearded pig, and the occasional
pangolin.
Those wishing to stay and enjoy the coral reefs, mangrove and lowland
tropical rainforest, have three great choices. Firstly, there's
an international-standard resort on Gaya Island, with luxurious
chalet accommodation. Second, Manukan Island offers several wooden
chalets. Finally, public shelters, a restaurant and picnic tables,
and a rest house are available on Mamutik Island.
Diving
Manukan Island
Manukan Island is famous for its long stretch of beautiful white-sand
beach and fringing reef located on the Southern Coast. Spacious and
comfortable wooden chalets are available for guests who want to stay
longer to enjoy the sea and soak up the sun. We particularly enjoyed
the spectacular sunsets over the South China Sea, which are almost
daily affairs.
Manukan's dive sites are accessible to all levels of divers
and I was excited to be exploring these dive sites once more. On our
dives here we were very happy to see a thriving underwater garden
of staghorn coral in the shallows (from about 3-8m) which then gave
way to lettuce coral and brain coral. The gentle sloping reef ended
up in the sand at 15m and then gradually got deeper up to about 20m.
We spotted a number of trumpetfish, juvenile batfish, a school of
barracuda and large squaretail coral groupers hovering just off the
reef.
On closer inspection, the reef revealed mating nudibranchs, shy blennies,
anemone shrimps, pufferfish and numerous species of butterflyfish,
rabbitfish and parrotfish. On our way back to the surface we spotted
a cowfish intent on getting its next meal. Despite the large number
of storms that hit the area in October last year, the marine life
was thriving.
The next day, snorkelling around the jetty, we were met by schooling
jacks. However do be aware of boat traffic around the jetty. Also
snorkelling is the best at the eastern part the island, as elsewhere
in the shallows, storms have damaged the coral garden leaving only
sparsely scattered boulders, gobies, and numerous sea stars in the
sand.
Sulug Island
This area is perfect for finding unusual marine critters, as we found
out! The sloping reef of lettuce coral ends up on a sandy slope at
12-15m where large sargassum and padina seaweed flourish. This is
an excellent place to find various algae-eating nudibranchs and sea
hares. The seaweeds are seasonal and generally found only from April
to September. Lurking unobserved in the sand are panther flounders,
mantis shrimps and gobies. Adi also found a cuttlefish, lying camouflaged
on the sandy bottom.
As we searched among the lettuce coral, hingebeak shrimps peeked out,
seemingly as curious about us as we were of them. Then a banded sea
snake swam past, and we followed it for about five minutes as it went
hunting, much to our delight. Transparent anemone shrimps danced away
tucked among the tentacles of their hosts and a green turtle passed
by oblivious to our bubbles. Just when we thought it couldn't
get any better, Basir, our dive master, pointed out a painted frogfish
under a table coral at 6m. What a way to end the dive!
Edgell Patch
The following day we headed off to explore Edgell Patch, near Sapi
Island. The reef here is a gentle slope starting at about 6m and
continuing to 25m. Basir promised to show us two large frogfish,
and indeed he did. At 24m, there were two purplish-coloured frogfish
perching majestically on two separate barrel sponges. Having little
bottom time to spare, Adi and I frantically tried to get the shot
we wanted before our dive computers gave us their warning beeps.
Coming up to 15m, colourful feather stars greeted us while swarms
of cardinalfish flitted in and out of crevices. Adi waved me over
to proudly point out a sleeping nurse shark. Schools of fusiliers
swam past and among them was a scrawled filefish. Cleaner wrasse,
intent on providing their cleaning services, checked us out as we
floated peacefully underwater.
After diving we met Chong Hion Hoak, the dive operations director,
who told us about some wrecks situated two hours along the coast.
We were eager to dive on them and, to our delight, Hoak agreed to
arrange it.
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The sheer size of the wrecks was breathtaking. |
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The Wrecks
Two days later with enthusiasm, Nitrox tanks and a team of six divers,
we headed north to Usukan Bay. We had done our homework and found
that these Japanese cruisers wrecks were sunk in 1944 by two American
submarines, the USS Darter and the USS Dace. Given the size of these
war-relics, ranging from 15 m to 250m in length, plus the fact that
they had been underwater now for over 45 years, we knew the dives
were going to be spectacular.
As we reached the site, our curiosity peaked. There were local fishing
boats around the site, as the wrecks are natural aggregates for fish
life. Locating the wrecks requires great skill and the use of a GPS
receiver and sonar equipment, as there are no buoy markers. Our first
wreck was the "Upside Down Wreck". After a descent shotline
was in place, we eagerly grabbed our cameras and descended back into
history.
We were lucky that Mother Nature had granted us excellent visibility,
and the wreck seemed to go on forever. We just couldn't believe
the sheer size of it! The cruiser was barely visible behind schooling
bigeye jacks and rainbow runners. The shallowest part of the wreck
was at 25m and the deepest sat in the sand at approximately 42m. As
we explored it we came across bullets strewn along the lower deck.
Then a huge surprise - the biggest grouper that any of us had ever
seen swam lazily by, opening its mouth grumpily once or twice as if
to warn us of its presence.
Pumping with adrenaline after this sudden encounter, we swam with
lionfish as schools of glassfish darted among the many yellow coral
bushes. The wreck was adorned with sponges, daisy coral, whip coral
and soft coral which made the dive a kaleidoscope of colour. Banded
coral shrimps were seen in the ship's funnel, while near the
sandy bottom, a whitetip reef shark swam by. Cobias darted frantically
around the wreck looking for easy meals. As we came up from the dive
we had only one complaint: not enough bottom time! It was one of the
best wreck-dives, as conditions were near perfect and the marine life
was abundant. It would take many dives to explore the whole wreck;
something we definitely want to do in the future.
After patiently waiting the required 90-minutes surface interval,
we eagerly descended to "The Rice Bowl", located very
close to the previous wreck. Here a school of batfish greeted us,
followed by a shoal of barracuda. On closer inspection of the wreck,
scorpionfish were seen camouflaged among the encrusting growth. Once
again, the fish life was incredible. Looking into the portholes, you
can make out the broken rice bowls, from which this wreck obtained
its name.
The wrecks will provide you with a unique and memorable dive experience.
However it is recommended that you choose experienced dive operators
and have, at least, an advanced dive certification (Nitrox certification
is encouraged). Absolute Scuba was very professional with good safety
precautions in place. Contact Hoak at http://www.sabahsightseeing.net/absolute.html
The Tunku Abdul Rahman Park and the surrounding areas are easily accessible
from Kota Kinabalu City, making it a perfect option to get wet during
your holidays in Sabah. Besides that, there are many attractions around
Kota Kinabalu City to occupy divers and non-divers alike. The Sunday
Gaya Street Market is a perfect place to shop for souvenirs and to
sample local delicacies. Besides this, a visit to the Sabah Museum
(located just 10 minutes out of town) will give you an insight to
Sabah's history and culture. There are lots more attractions,
which can be enjoyed on a day-trip too, such as the Klias river trips
and the sightings of the astonishing orang-utans and proboscis monkeys.
Happy diving!
Dive & learn more with ABC DIVERS, Santiburi Resort, Koh Samui.
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