Mabul Island first became popular due to its close proximity to Sipadan Island. However, in the last few years it has gained its own recognition as one of the best “muck-diving” sites in the world.

Mabul Island is a small oval shaped island surrounded by sandy beaches and perched on the northwest corner of a larger 200 hectare reed. The reef is on the edge of continental shelf and seabed surrounding the reef slopes to 25m – 30m deep. There are several Dive resorts operating on Mabul Island.

Mabul is arguably one of the riches single destinations for exotic small marine life anywhere in the world. Flamboyant cuttlefish, blue-ringed octopus, mimic octopus and bobtail squids are just a few of the numerous types of cephalopods to be found on Mabul’s reef.

The sight of harlequin shrimp feeding on sea stars and boxer crabs waving their tiny anemone pompoms are just a small example of the endless species of crustaceans. Many types of gobies can be found including the spike-fin goby, black sail-fin goby and metallic shrimp goby. Frogfish are everywhere – giant, painted and clown frogfish are all regularly seen. Moray eels and snake eels of many types can be seen along with almost the whole scorpion fish family. It would be quicker to list the species not found at Mabul – crazy critters are in abundance at the magical macro site.