Willy Volk of Divester sets out to calculate the damage suffered by my recent seed and article about Sipadan Island. I still have to check his math, but the figures he comes up with are surprising:

"Recently, I mentioned the famous section of Sipadan's reef that was destroyed by a barge that devastatingly scraped against it. According to Andrea and Antonella Ferrari, two divers who saw the destruction the day of the event, "The damage is incalculable." That statement got me wondering: Is it really incalculable?

Today, I decided to prove that the damage was (a) calculable, and (b) tremendous. However, upon completing my math, I determined that the economic damage was not only quantifiable...it wasn't even all that great: the economic loss resulting from the destruction of that patch of reef is only $1511 annually."

Following on my recently seeded link about the saddening destruction of habitat on this beautiful jewel of an island, here is an article I wrote in 2004 regarding my visit to Sipadan.

Divers are flabbergasted at the fact that they virtually have to push all the sharks and turtles out of the way to see anything else in the hotbed of biodiversity that is Sipadan Island. This tiny island off the coast of Borneo is world renowned for sightings of large pelagic species that come in mind-boggling numbers. Sipadan hit the world stage in 1984 when Jacques Cousteau chose it as the site for his film Ghost of the Sea Turtles. The same Turtle Cavern can still be visited today and houses tens of skeletons of sea turtles as well as a dolphin skeleton or two. Because the island is so small (taking only 20 minutes to walk full circle), and the fact that only 100 guests are allowed on any given night, Sipadan evokes an air of a Summer Camp for Divers. In this respect, it is like no other dive destination in the world. The only problem is, divers can only enjoy this unique experience until the end of the year when the government will cease to allow overnight stay on the island. (Unfortunately, this has already happened)

Sipadan Island is a result of a geologic structure resembling the shape of a mushroom, with the shaft rising 1000m from the ocean floor and the tip of the mushroom cap protruding just above the surface. This arrangement leads to a 'drop off', where divers literally walk a few paces out from the beach and swim out over a submerged ledge, beyond which lies the abyss. Diving consists of a mixture of shore diving from the drop off and boat diving at various sites around the island.

Experts claim that Sipadan Island and the surrounding waters are home to the world's densest population of sea turtles. This fact is probably why divers are hard pressed to complete a single dive during their stay without seeing at least a dozen turtles and a handful of sharks. Highlights of a stay on the island might include sightings of hundreds of hammerhead sharks circling below in the deeper waters, schools of over a thousand barracuda creating a veritable roar underwater as they pass by, and a perhaps a rare thresher shark or manta ray caught from the corner of an eye. Add to this, encounters with crocodile fish, leopard sharks and swarming schools of gleaming jackfish and you'll be finning back to shore just to catch your breath.

Topside, the island does not disappoint. By day you can witness coconut crabs climb palm trees to retrieve coconuts, cracking them open with their gargantuan claw, or catch a sighting of a 4' monitor lizard shuffling along. By night, you can go on a 'turtle walk' and watch a turtle lay her eggs up close and personal. These eggs are then collected and the babies are released once a week, a sight not to be missed, as the little buggers scurry off into the surf. Perhaps the most charming part of it all is the close-knit atmosphere of chatting with other divers during surface intervals and sharing stories of that day's sightings at night under a blanket of stars, cold beer in hand. Everyone on the island has a twinkle in their eye, knowing full well the short-lived privilege they enjoy by being one of the last few to visit Summer Camp for Divers.

View more of my photos by choosing one of the galleries: Topside or Aquatic

Hundreds of meters of coral and turtles have been wiped out at Sipadan [Island] in a tragic accident involving a large barge and the local irresponsibility of whoever is managing the island. It is incredible ironic that dive resorts were pushed off of the island in an attempt to preserve Sipadan's amazing marine life, only to result in the destruction of the very resource they were trying to protect. The beached barge was carrying steel and concrete mixing supplies, and so far, no one has reported why so many building supplies were on their way to Sipadan.

This makes me terribly sad. Sipadan is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I wrote an article on this place a while back. Here are a couple photo galleries of the tiny island, on the land and in the water.