Church Reef
Church Reef is connected to the coral reef of Sibuan Island and located on the north-western side of Tun Sakaran Marine Park. There is a back reef as well as a wide reef top, and the lagoons are sandy-bottomed and bordered with corals. The waters are clear and calm, and the place is so intensely biodiverse that it has become a polestar for scuba divers.
Church Reef's rim is steep all over with its north-western portion so steep that it forms a 40-metre upright wall. This portion is dotted by hollows and recesses measuring up to one metre.
The south-western portion in front of the outer reef dips fast, some parts being even perpendicular. This creates a deep shelf with a crisscrossing system of deep lagoons. The reef is more than 10 metres deep here and during low tide is isolated by the crest of the outer reef. The outer edge of the reef's rim measures about 7.5 km.
How is the Scuba Diving and Snorkelling?
The coral gardens of Church Reef are ideal for scuba diving, snorkelling, freediving and muck diving. Eagle rays, electric rays, ribbon eels, tube sponges, feather stars, pygmy seahorses, frogfish, mandarinfish, seafans, and stony corals are the more common critters that divers can expect.
Where to Stay Nearby?
Divers can stay on the beautiful nearby private resort islands of Mataking and Pom Pom Island or in Semporna city for those more on a budget.
How to reach Church Reef?
- From Semporna to Church Reef: only 35 minutes by speedboat.
- From Mataking and Pom Pom Island: about 25 to 35 minutes.
- From Mabul island the journey takes 90 minutes.
More about Church Reef
Church Reef connects to the coral reef of Sibuan Island on the north-western side of the Tun Sakaran Marine Park — effectively Sibuan's larger underwater estate, extending the island's famous diving across a proper reef system: a wide reef top, a back reef, and sandy-bottomed lagoons bordered with coral. The waters here run clear, and the terrain variety in one compact area is the draw — you can spend a tank moving between lagoon, reef flat and edge without the boat repositioning once.
The diving character follows Sibuan's: this is macro-and-texture country. The sandy lagoon floors host the burrowers and ambushers, the coral borders carry the reef-fish neighbourhoods, and the reef top in good light is a legitimate snorkelling destination in its own right — which makes Church Reef one of the park sites where a mixed group of divers and snorkellers genuinely shares the same experience rather than politely diverging.
Because it's contiguous with Sibuan's reef, guides often fold Church Reef into a Sibuan day as the variety tank — the site that shows what the island's underwater platform looks like beyond the famous pygmy-seahorse fans. Conditions are typically gentle and depths friendly.