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kapalai

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dive kapalai, macro diving at its best

Kapalai is the third point of the famous Golden Triangle, with Sipadan and Mabul being the other two. Kapalai is not a true island but rather a sandbar that’s built upon to form a true water resort. While the resort was originally built for its proximity to world-famous Sipadan, curious divers quickly discovered the paradise that awaited just beneath. Kapalai is undoubtedly one of the premiere macro dive sites in the world. It's true that many divers come to Kapalai and never even go to Sipadan!

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Kapalai dive sites map
mimic octopus Kapalai dive

crazy marine life!

Blue ring octopus, mimic octopus, ghost pipefish, wasp fish, and stonefish are just some of the common sights. Every day at dusk, in the coral rubble adjacent to the Kapalai jetty, mandarin fish perform their nightly mating ritual. Leaf scorpion fish and frogfish of various colors inhabit the sloping reefs on all sides of the islands. You can find giant stingrays, as well as large schools of jackfish and barracuda, along with solitary giant groupers reaching over two meters in length. If you zoom in, you'll find many unusual marine invertebrates including orangutan crabs, spider crabs, hyper-colored nudibranchs, and many different species of shrimps. Indeed, Kapalai is an underwater photographers' paradise.

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Kapalai Dive Sites

kapalai house reef

Often described as the best dive site around Kapalai, the house reef is absolutely bursting with marine life, big and small. It is every underwater photographer’s dream dive site! Start your dive on the sloping reef, before reaching the sandy bottom starting at about 12m.

On the sandy slope you will find an artificial reef structure including several wrecks, houses, towers and bridges. These structures have attracted an incredible diversity of marine life. From massive giant groupers and great barracudas, to some of the most sought after macro critters in the world. Look out for tiny frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, blue-ringed octopus, ghost pipefish and the coolest nudibranchs you can think of. At the end of the dive, you’ll head back to the reef where you can say hello to “Elvis”, the massive resident giant moray eel. Also look out for leaf scorpion fish, octopus, and the elusive mandarin fish in the shallow area. This is a world-class dive site, not to be missed!
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giant moray eel Kapalai diving
Kapalai diving frogfish

mid reef

Descend along the mooring line to the top of the dive site at around 15m. The reef reaches a depth of about 25m and you can have some fairly strong currents here. You’ll find both schooling snappers, red tooth triggerfish and other reef fish here, and as with the rest of Kapalai, it is an excellent dive site for smaller marine life. There are plenty of critters to discover, rare nudibranchs, ghost pipefish and ribbon eels are common finds. Watch out for rare creatures such as flamboyant cuttlefish and pygmy seahorses.
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siu siu point

This dive site offers a nice right-shoulder drift towards the point of Kapalai Island. Just drop in, go with the flow, and enjoy the beautiful scenes this site has to offer. With some of the healthiest coral around the island, stingrays, turtles and some great macro critters, this dive site will not disappoint! Look out for critters such as ghost pipefish, frogfish, mushroom coral pipefish and octopus. Eagle rays are fairly common here, and we’ve also had quite a few surprise visits here by both manta rays, whale sharks and even a few blue marlins, you never know what might pass by out in the blue!
At the end of the dive, the sloping reef turns in to a coral plateau, with large coral bommies, table corals and a stunning soft coral garden. A perfect spot to drift over whilst completing your 5m safety stop!
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eagle ray Kapalai dive site
nudibranch Kapalai dive

little okinawa

A sloping reef with a maximum depth of around 18m. With beautiful coral in the shallows, both green and hawksbill turtles, and plenty of little critters hiding amongst the coral, you’ll never run out of things to look at here. If you’re in to weird and wonderful macro critters - head down to where the reef meets the sand and look out for colourful nudibranchs, pipefish, scorpion fish and frogfish. As you shallow up along the reef you’ll see plenty of crocodilefish, blue spotted ribbon tail rays, moray eels and perhaps a cuttlefish or two!
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black ray channel

This dive site on the south side of Kapalai has an amazing topography. The reef slopes down to a sandy channel at around 16m deep. A short swim over the sand will bring you to the second reef, which drops well below 40m. At the drop off, look out for pelagic fish such as tuna and giant trevallies. Larger stingrays such as marbled ray and cowtail stingray can sometimes be spotted in the deeper sandy parts, and eagle rays sometimes make an appearance too. We’ve even seen white tip reef sharks passing by in the deeper areas!

As you shallow up and swim back over the sandy channel, watch for creatures hiding in the sand such as flying gurnards, juvenile peacock razorfish, and giant mantis shrimp.
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marbled ray Kapalai
diving Kapalai island

kapalai rock

Start your dive exploring the huge coral bommie which this dive site is named after. Here you’ll often find marine life such as scorpion fish, moray eels, lionfish and nudibranchs. Continue down the first reef to about 10m where you’ll find the sandy channel that runs across the southern side of Kapalai. Swim past the channel towards the second reef, which starts at about 12m. Here you’ll discover a stunning coral garden, with lots of marine life. There are large table corals, which often has coral cat sharks, or bamboo sharks hiding underneath. Check out the gorgonian sea fans for a chance of spotting the tiny pygmy seahorse.

Schooling snappers, fusiliers and triggerfish are common here, as are large green turtles and blue spotted stingrays.
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gurnard ground

Here you’ll find a shallow sloping reef reaching about 16m maximum. At the bottom of the reef lies a small wreck where you can look out for frog fish and moray eels! After the wreck, dive down the sandy plateau and watch out for the many swimming stingrays as they dart away from the dive group. As you head back to the sloping reef you may see the unusual flying gurnard this dive site is named after. This is a truly unique dive site!
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flying gurnard
octopus Kapalai

cleaning station

This dive site lies to the left of the jetty. It consists of a shallow sloping reef (max depth 18m). To get the best out of this dive site, you’ll have to go very slow and search amongst the rubble and coral for small critters such as ornate ghost pipefish, frogfish, stonefish, octopus and the famous but very rare mandarin fish.

The dive site is named after the many turtle cleaning stations dotted along the reef. Huge green turtles, measuring over 1.5m can be seen regularly, as can the smaller hawksbill turtle.
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The Islands we visit

dive sipadan
Home to thousands of turtles, schooling sharks, swirling barracuda, and awe-inspiring coral walls dropping more than 600m straight down. Sipadan is frequently voted as the worlds number 1 dive destination.
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mabul dive
Steep walls, gently sloping reefs, artificial reefs and world class muck-diving sites. Mabul has an incredible diversity of dive sites and marine life.
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dive kapalai
Blue-rings, flamboyant cuttlefish, pygmy seahorses - need we say more? Kapalai is undoubtedly one of the premiere macro dive sites in the world.
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Si Amil, Devil Rays
Si Amil offers divers a bit of everything: Very rare macro life, to vast numbers of Devil rays - This island is a 45 min boat trip from Mabul and leaves all our divers with a big smile on their face :)
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