Froggy Lair
Froggy Lair is famous for macro and critter photography.
This is the best site for muck and macro diving enthusiasts, it's a nice drift dive just off the edge of the islands jetty with depths from 5 to 10m, and it is simply teeming with marine critters hidden along the seabed and in the holes. Sometimes, the limited visibility means you have to search carefully, but you will be rewarded by the sight of fascinating and colourful looking nudibranchs, ghost pipe-fish, mandarin-fish and scorpion-fish, as well as camouflaged frog and crocodile fish, and lots of fancy cuttlefish.
This dive site features unusual species often found here among the suspended particles.
There are numerous nudibranchs of every shapes and colors, the occasional ornate ghost pipefish, several frogfishes of various colors and if you are lucky the flamboyant cuttlefish.
You will need a divemaster with excellent eyes as the main action will not be in the distance but closer to your mask.
Froggy Lair — Froggie's Lair on some maps and in our Top 10 — is Mabul's macro headquarters, and arguably the best muck-and-critter site on an island built of them. It's a gentle drift just off the edge of the island's jetty, 5 to 10 metres deep, and the seabed is simply teeming: frogfish in every colourway (the residents that named the site), plus the full Mabul supporting cast hidden in the holes and rubble — seahorses, pipefish, ornate ghost pipefish when the season's kind, and octopus doing their quick-change acts.
Low viz, big payoff: giant frogfish
The honest briefing: visibility here is often limited, and that's part of the method — you search carefully, close and slow, and the site pays you back in direct proportion to your patience. The shallow depth is the great equalizer: 70-minute dives are routine, newer divers manage the drift comfortably, and photographers get the long working time macro demands.
Our tip: dive it with a guide who worked it this week — frogfish hold territories for weeks, so the current residents are known addresses, not luck. Ask at the centre before you splash.
Froggy Lair belongs in any Mabul day alongside Crocodile Avenue and a dusk finish at Paradise. Contact us to plan it in.
Contact us to dive at Froggy Lair
- Depth
- 5-10 metres
- Visibility
- Poor - 5 metres (15 feet)
- Location
- North East of Sipadan Island.
| Dive site | Min depth | Max depth | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crocodile Avenue | 5m 16ft | 20m 66ft | OW |
| Lobster Wall | 25m 82ft | 40m 131ft | OW |
| Ray Point | 5m 16ft | 15m 49ft | OW |
| Seaventures | 12m 39ft | 18m 59ft | OW |
| House Reef | 10m 33ft | 15m 49ft | OW |
| Eel Garden | 5m 16ft | 25m 82ft | OW |
| Froggy Lair | 5m 16ft | 10m 33ft | OW |
| Paradise | 5m 16ft | 10m 33ft | OW |
Divers: book your Sipadan permits in advance!
