Located in the Indo-Pacific Basin, Malaysia is a part of the Coral Triangle — the world’s richest garden of corals and sea life. Divers will come across a variety of colorful and unique sea life, including various species of turtles, blue ribbon eel, hammerhead sharks, the bizarre frogfish, and peacock mantis shrimp.


In addition to a rich marine environment, Malaysia offers a diverse underwater geography, such as sloping reefs, coral blocks, wall dives, deep dives, drift dives, and wreck dives. Popular dive spots include Sipadan, Pulau Redang, Langkawi Islands, Pulau Perhentian, and Pulau Tioman, which together offer endless diverse diving opportunities.


While Malaysia’s dive scene is known as one of “Asia’s best-kept secrets,” it is recognized as one of the world’s best dive destinations. With incredible marine life bio-diversity, beautiful islands, white sandy beaches, and clear warm waters, popularity for this emerging dive haven continues to grow. Malaysia is dedicated to protecting its vibrant and exotic marine life. The country works closely with the World Wildlife Fund, a leading conservation organization, to ensure all proper steps are taken to conserve marine life.


“Our country is fortunate to have some of the world’s best diving sites, and we are working to preserve and restore our unique and diverse marine life, said Mr. Salahuddin Mohd Arifin, Tourism Malaysia vice president Eastern USA. Many different coral species are currently facing extinction, and coral reefs in general are facing severe decline. Semporna, Sabah (near Sipadan) is an important site because research suggests that this area may have the world's highest marine biodiversity. To help offset coral decline found there, the Tropical Research and Conservation Centre (TRACC) and The Green Connection have partnered together to help save the coral reefs.

The ultimate goal of the project is to rebuild coral populations that can support a reef shark population. Before the reefs can support a shark population, the coral reefs need to flourish and attract other marine life, including fish, rays and octopuses. Volunteer manpower is desperately needed to repair damaged reefs by replanting coral, as well as building fish aggregation devices to retain large number of pelagic fish in the area. As a part of the Pom Pom Coral Conservation Volunteer Project, volunteer divers can replant coral fragments and broken coral pieces into damaged areas of reefs and monitor recovery and growth.

For more information call Ginny Ceballos at (213) 683-2106, E-mail her at gceballos@saeshe.com, or visit www.tourismmalaysiausa.com or www.tourismmalaysiany.com or www.tourismmalaysia.ca.