Mantabuan Diving
Matabuan Dive sites
- Stingray Alley Way
More about Mantabuan Diving
Mantabuan is one of the eight islands of the Tun Sakaran Marine Park, a short hop from Sibuan on the Semporna day-trip circuit and as the name suggests, this is the park's manta island. Sightings are never guaranteed anywhere in the ocean, but Mantabuan's cleaning and feeding grounds give you as fair a chance as this coast offers and the backup act would headline anywhere else: some of the shallowest black coral gardens you will ever dive.
That last part deserves a word, because divers usually meet black coral at 30 or 40 metres, squinting in the blue. At Mantabuan the bushes grow within easy reach of a long, relaxed dive: dense thickets that shelter longnose hawkfish, winged pearl oysters and a steady supply of nudibranchs. Photographers regularly burn a whole tank in one garden.
Mantabuan Dive Sites
- Black Coral Garden
- Stingray Alley Way
- Star Point
Stingray Alley Way does what it says: blue-spotted ribbontails parked on the sand with the occasional bigger ray gliding through. Depths across the island are mostly gentle, which makes Mantabuan a comfortable second island on a two-island day, typically paired with Sibuan.
Like everywhere in the Tun Sakaran park, access is by day boat from Semporna, around 35 minutes with park fees payable and no accommodation on the island itself. Contact us to fit Mantabuan into your Semporna itinerary; it slots neatly between island days at Mabul and a Sipadan permit day.