Located on the north west side of Sipadan Island, Hanging Gardens dive site is named after the mythological hanging gardens of Babylon. A ridge at 2m below the surface drops off to 70m where there is another ledge which the drops off into the deep. Soft corals of several colours hang from the ledges and down the wall. Gorgonian sea fans and sea squirts also cling to the wall. The wall itself is full of life including moray eels, scorpionfish, lionfish, gobies, shrimps, crabs and other crustaceans. Reef fish include yellow tail snapper, fusilier, wrasse and coral grouper. There are also parrotfish, titan triggerfish, clown triggerfish and sweetlips plus a myriad of smaller fish like anthias and damsel fish. Look in sea fans for long nosed hawkfish and ornate ghost pipefish.
Green turtles and white tip reef sharks are usually seen here and ribbon tail rays are occasionally spotted. Keep one eye out in the blue for chance encounters with scalloped hammerheads and thresher sharks.
To the south of Hanging Gardens is a dive site called Lobster Lair which is a less popular dive site because it's more of a critter hunting dive instead of looking for the big stuff. In the coral crevices divers can find all number of crustaceans including lobsters. There are also pipefish, seahorses, frogfish and leaf fish plus scorpionfish and lionfish. Leopard sharks are sometimes spotted here.
On the north west tip of Sipadan Island is the West Ridge dive site. This dive site is prettiest in the afternoon when the sun lights the reef from the west. Large black coral bushes are numerous. Reef fish include oriental sweetlips, yellow tailed snapper, coral grouper and moorish idols. Anemones can be seen with their resident anemone fish. Green turtles feed here. Lucky divers may see Napoleon wrasse.
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