Barracuda Point, Sipadan
A wall on an oceanic island where barracuda school in a vortex and turtles are too many to count.
- Depth
- 5–40 m16–131 ft
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Entry
- Boat
- Typical current
- Strong
- Coordinates
- 4°6.882′N 118°37.734′E
- Activities
- Scuba
Sipadan rises 600 m from the seabed and the drop-off starts a few metres from the beach. Barracuda Point is named for the chevron barracuda that form a slow tornado on the corner, and the current that makes them do it also makes this an advanced drift. Green turtles are so numerous that divers stop noticing them. Permits are capped at around 176 per day for the whole island and are allocated through resorts, so the trip has to be planned months ahead.
Fly to Tawau, road to Semporna, then boat to Mabul or Kapalai and a permit day at Sipadan.
Best season
- ExcellentApr–Sep
- GoodFeb–Mar
- GoodOct–Nov
- FairDec–Jan
Before you get in
- Past 30 m, where no-stop time and gas both go quickly and nitrogen narcosis starts to show.
- A wall. There is no bottom in sight to judge against, so depth is kept by the gauge alone — and it is easy to end up deeper than intended.
- Recorded as a site with strong current. Settle your gas reserve, when you would call the dive, and your surface signal before you get in.
- A drift dive: you do not come back to where you went in, so boat pickup and an SMB are part of the plan rather than extras.
Taken from this site’s recorded depth, type and current, and nothing else. An empty list is not a safe site — the sea on the day, the local geography and the boat traffic are not in it. The briefing on the spot comes first.
Conditions
No live conditions for this site yet.
We only show numbers we can attribute to a source.
Sea state and tide
Marine life you may see
- Bluespotted ribbontail rayTaeniura lymmaRare
- Bigeye trevallyCaranx sexfasciatusCommon
- Blackfin barracudaSphyraena qenieCommon
- Green turtleChelonia mydasCommon
- Grey reef sharkCarcharhinus amblyrhynchosCommon
- Bumphead parrotfishBolbometopon muricatumCommon
- Giant trevallyCaranx ignobilisCommon
- Hawksbill turtleEretmochelys imbricataCommon
- Staghorn coralAcropora spp.Common
- TrumpetfishAulostomus chinensisCommon
- Titan triggerfishBalistoides viridescensCommon
- Oriental sweetlipsPlectorhinchus vittatusCommon
- Moorish idolZanclus cornutusCommon
- Marbled stingrayTaeniura meyeniCommon
- Cowtail stingrayPastinachus sephenRare
- Blue sea starLinckia laevigataCommon
- Yellowmargin triggerfishPseudobalistes flavimarginatusCommon
From divers
What people who were in the water reported. Not a forecast, and not a judgement about whether the site is safe to dive.
No recent reports from divers. If you dived here in the last two weeks, you can say how it was.
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