Coral Garden
Coral Garden is a shallow, healthy reef popular with macro and wide-angle photographers. Green turtles feed along the wall edge, and featherstars, humphead wrasse, titan triggerfish, butterflyfish and angelfish are common. Sabah Parks notes you do not need to go down the wall to enjoy it; depths quoted range from 5–10 m up to about 22 m.
Facts
- Region: Malaysia – Sipadan & Semporna
- Area: Sipadan Island
- Depth: 5–22 m
- Level: intermediate
- Current: low
- Type: reef
- Coordinates: 4.114, 118.6264 (approximate)
- Highlights: hard coral, feather star, humphead wrasse, titan triggerfish, green turtle, anemonefish, nudibranch
- Permit: A Sabah Parks permit is required for every day on Sipadan. Independent diving is not allowed: permits are booked by licensed dive operators/resorts and issued at Sabah Parks' discretion; the daily quota is shared between operators (176 per day since 2019 per Wikipedia and Scuba Junkie; some 2026 operator notices cite about 252 – confirm). Divers need at least Advanced Open Water. Park fees on the Sabah Parks site: scuba diving RM 350 (foreigners) / RM 250 (Malaysians) plus a conservation fee of RM 100 / RM 50. Dive operators can book up to six months ahead. Sipadan was closed to divers for all of November 2023 and some operators state this is repeated every November – check before booking.
- Issuer / contact: Sabah Parks – Sipadan Island Park
- Phone: +60 88-523500
- Email: hello@sabahparks.org.my
- Website: https://www.sabahparks.org.my/contact-us
- Sabah Parks head office (Kota Kinabalu); Sipadan Island Park office in Semporna: +60 89-782039. Permits are booked by licensed dive operators, not by individual divers (https://www.sabahparks.org.my/services/diving-sipadan.
- Unverified: Published guides name this site but do not give its position; the marker is placed roughly off the island and does not show the real side or spot.
- Tips: Easy, mild-current dive suitable for longer bottom times.