Whitetip Avenue
Whitetip Avenue is famous for its proliferation of sharks, mantas and turtles.
It's a wall dive and below 30m, there are a lot of sharks (grey and white tips) along with very nice sea fans and patches of black corals.
Whitetip Avenue is Sipadan's shark boulevard. The name undersells it: yes, whitetip reef sharks own the street (resting on ledges, cruising the wall in twos and threes) but below 30 metres the greys join in numbers, mantas make their passes and the turtle traffic never stops, all against a deep wall dressed in fine seafans and patches of black coral. On a good day it's the island's most consistently sharky dive outside Barracuda Point's showpieces.
How to dive it?
The 17–40 metre profile tells you how to dive it: this is an Advanced Open Water wall where the depth band is the attraction. Our pattern here is the disciplined V: down the face early to the 30-metre shark layer while gas and no-deco time are rich then a slow diagonal ascent that trades depth for the fan gardens and the mid-wall turtle lanes. Divers who rush the deep section miss the point; divers who linger there sensibly get the dive everyone else describes at dinner.
A note on the sharks themselves, for newer shark divers: whitetips and greys here are reef residents utterly uninterested in divers. The correct emotion is privilege, not caution and after the third fly-past everyone's heart rate agrees.
Contact us to dive at Whitetip Avenue
- Depth
- 17-40 metres
- Visibility
- 30 metres (100 feet)
- Location
- East side of Sipadan, south of Barracuda Point and Coral Gardens.
| Dive site | Min depth | Max depth | Level | Dive Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barracuda Point | 5m 16ft | 40m 131ft | AOW | Wall, Reef |
| Coral gardens | 10m 33ft | 23m 75ft | OW | Wall, Reef |
| Hanging Gardens | 5m 16ft | 40m 131ft | OW | Wall, Reef, Sharks |
| Lobster lairs | 25m 82ft | 40m 131ft | AOW | Wall, Reef, Big Fishes |
| North Point | 25m 82ft | 40m 131ft | AOW | Drift, Wall, Reef, Sharks |
| South Point | 20m 65ft | 40m 131ft | AOW | Wall, Reef |
| Staghorn Crest | 20m 65ft | 40m 131ft | AOW | Wall, Reef, Sharks |
| The Jetty | 3m 10ft | 40m 131ft | OW | Wall, Reef |
| Turtle Cavern | 14m 46ft | 23m 75ft | AOW | Cave, Reef |
| Turtle Patch | 5m 16ft | 12m 39ft | OW | Wall, Reef, Sharks |
| Turtle Tomb | 17m 56ft | 23m 75ft | Divemaster | Cave |
| West Ridge | 18m 59ft | 40m 131ft | OW | Wall, Reef, Sharks |
| Whitetip Avenue | 17m 56ft | 40m 131ft | OW | Wall, Reef, Sharks |
| Midreef | 5m 16ft | 40m 131ft | AOW | Wall, Reef |
| The Drop Off | 5m 16ft | 40m 131ft | AOW | Wall, Reef |
Divers: book your Sipadan permits in advance!