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Diving With Seaventures Dive Rig, Mabul Sipadan, Celebes Sea, Malaysia
In this ongoing series, we speak with the people who run dive centres, resorts and liveaboards from around the world about their businesses and the diving they have to offer…
What is your name?
Pete Hamerton
What is the name of your business?
Seaventures Dive Rig
What is your role within the business?
Dive Team Manager
How long has the business operated for?
Since 1997
How long have you dived for, and what qualification are you?
I learnt to dive in 2003 and became an Instructor in 2009. I am currently a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, Tec Deep Instructor, TDI Advanced Trimix Diver and IANTD Full Cave Diver.
What is your favorite type of diving?
Other than teaching diving, I enjoy Caves, Deep Walls, Wrecks and Muck Diving.
If you could tell people one thing about your business (or maybe more!) to make them want to visit you what would it be?
Seaventures Dive Rig is the world’s first and only oil rig that has been re-purposed into a dive resort. We offer daily dive trips to Sipadan, regularly voted as one of the best dive locations in the world. And we offer daily diving at Mabul Island – macro-diving heaven! But it’s not just the diving that we love. The whole experience of living on a former oil rig is a one of a kind experience. Rooms are small but comfortable. There is an almost 360 degree view of the Celebes Sea with great sunrises and sunsets. We pride ourselves on having an extremely experienced, friendly, multi-lingual and safety-conscious dive team. Finally, we pride ourselves on providing superb customer service – both topside and underwater – and excellent food.
What is your favorite dive in your location and why?
The Rig’s house-reef is definitely a favourite if you love macros. Nudibranch, pygmy seahorse, frogfish, and the ornate ghost pipefish are just some that you will see under the Rig. Other than that we love Turtle Tomb and South Point. Both are famous dive sites at Sipadan. Turtle Tomb is a cave system that stretches for several hundred metres under Sipadan Island. It contains the perfectly preserved skeletons of about 20 dead Turtles and a dead Dolphin. We think they have found their way into the cave through a hole in the reef wall and were unable to find their way out. It’s an unforgettable dive and a really unique cave system.
South Point is an awesome wall dive on the South side of Sipadan Island. The wall starts at about 10m and stretches into the abyss – 600m below…! It’s great for recreational diving, Tec diving and Freediving (we are a PADI TecRec and Freediving centre). The wall is covered in vibrant soft and hard corals; we regularly see numerous Green and Hawksbill turtles and we regularly see different types of Sharks cruising past in the blue.
What types of diving are available in your location?
Recreational diving, Tec diving, Freediving, Rebreather diving, Wall diving, Macro diving, Drift diving and Night diving.
What do you find most rewarding about your current role?
Working with people and being in the ocean. Whether that’s a PADI Open Water student learning neutral buoyancy for the first time, guiding an experienced cave diver into Turtle Tomb, mentoring an Instructor candidate about to take their Instructor Exam or working with a diverse, dedicated, talented and multi-lingual group of colleagues.
At Seaventures we’re fortunate to have an awesome dive team who, between them, have over a hundred years of diving experience. I’m constantly impressed by our dedicated and hard-working team who always strive to show our customers the best of Mabul and Sipadan Islands, prioritise safety and make their guests smile. We also have some great customers from all over the world – and it’s a real pleasure to watch their faces as they come on to the rig for the first time (all of the team who aren’t diving personally greet arriving customers).
What is your favorite underwater creature?
Ornate Ghost Pipefish. I love their shape, colours and get a real sense of satisfaction whenever I find one….because they’re quite hard to find!
Are there any exciting changes / developments coming up in the near future?
Absolutely. We’ve just become a PADI Freediver centre and are really excited to start offering Freediving courses, as well as guided freediving, for our guests. We’re the first dive centre in the area to offer freediving and one of the few to offer Tec and Cave diving for our customers.
In addition, we’ve just finished our first Ocean Conservation week. As a busy dive resort, we’re acutely aware of some of the threats facing the ocean. We always try and educate our students and guests on the importance of preserving the marine environment – but we also want to have a set period every year where we relentlessly focus on this. We’re not only working with our guests and local community to educate them about some of the threats facing the marine environment, and what they can do to help, but we’re also looking at our business practices. For example, this year, we have stopped providing our guests with plastic bottled water. Instead, we’re providing re-fillable glass bottles. It may seem like a small change, but if you scale that up, that’s a significant reduction in the amount of plastic that we’re generating every year.
As a center what is the biggest problem you face at the moment?
It’s not a quite a problem but more of a challenge. Our Rig is located 45 minutes away from the nearest town (although we’re only minutes away from Mabul Island and only twenty minutes from Sipadan) so everything has to be transported in by boat. As such, we try and anticipate guest’s needs by having a well-stocked shop on the rig. In addition, because we are located literally above the water, every decision we make to use, install or build something has to consider the environmental impact that will have.
How do you see the SCUBA / Freediving / snorkeling industry overall? What changes would you make?
The team at Seaventures has over a hundred years of diving experience between them. We have seen many changes in that time. A few that we are especially conscious of:
- A much greater focus and urgency on the threats facing the ocean, and, with the support of partners like Project AWARE, a means to address some of these.
- Increased popularity of Freediving and Tec (both of which we offer). Including the recreational rebreather market.
- Especially in South-East Asia and Australia, there has been a massive increase in the number of Chinese divers. This is great, and has significantly changed the market across every aspect of the business.
Markets evolve for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways. Working in the dive industry, we have the ability to both shape and respond to some of those changes. We’ve seen a huge increase in the volume of divers and the speed at which we can get people into the water. That’s great. But we also need to make sure that students, from the very beginning, are learning and mastering good buoyancy skills and safety habits. This should be an integral part of their diving habits and is crucial for environmental and safety reasons.
What would you say to our visitors to promote the diving you have to offer?
Well, we dive every day at Sipadan and Mabul islands. They are both world-renowned dive locations that never fail to impress guests. And we are the world’s first oil rig that has been re-purposed as a dive resort. But on top of that, we strive to offer three things without fail: un-compromising safety standards; excellent standards of service and experience topside and underwater; and, like any business, sales.
On the last point, we take the time to listen to where customers are in their diving career and match the appropriate diving course or experience to them. If that’s a PADI DSD or a guided cave dive, we can offer it. We offer a wide range of diving courses and experiences, have an experienced and multi-lingual team, and have the benefit of a huge variety of diving options (Caves, Deep, Macro, Walls, Drift etc.)– so we don’t just blindly push the next course on to customers – we work out where they are and want to go with their diving, and try and help them get there.
Where can our visitors find out more about your business?
If you would like to know more about scuba diving and living on a former oil rig, email us at info@seaventuresdive.com or visit our website at www.seaventuresdive.com. We are also reachable at +6088 251 669 if you wish to speak to us.
You can also follow us on our social media pages for updates at:
https://www.facebook.com/seaventures
https://plus.google.com/107344633898864939260
https://instagram.com/seaventuresdiverig
https://twitter.com/Seaventures
When you visit a place like Raja Ampat over 11 days you really have a lot to talk about. The biodiversity and landscape of the region are inspiring and this is why it’s taken me three blog articles to explain how wonderful this experience was. If you haven’t had the chance already to read the previous two blogs, you can find them here: Part 1 and Part 2.
The dark weather meant a different take on this clownfish and anemone photo in the day at Anchovy
After a crossing of around 14 hours – quicker due to a southerly current working with the boat – we found ourselves in Farondi diving Razorback Rock, Anchovy, Nudi Rock (yes, it looks like a nudibranch) and a night dive at Yilliet Slope. I have to admit, it was the south and around Misool that I was really looking forward to on the trip, but it didn’t really get off to the best start and never lived up to the high standards further north had set. To be frank, this was more down to the weather really and the visibility wasn’t brilliant.
A storm meant the dives were pretty dark and in fact, the dive at Anchovy in particular was more like a night dive than a day dive. Unfortunately, we can’t control the weather and on other days these sites could have delivered a lot more. The sea fans on each dive were equally as impressive as further north, and I’d probably say more abundant. The dark atmosphere did mean I could try some fun and different shots with clownfish in anemones but I probably should have switched to macro quicker that day. There are always fun critters to find on every dive site and Nudi Rock showed just that, with a few sea fans being infested with skeleton shrimp. While I’ve seen skeleton shrimp before, I’d never seen anything like this; every bit of the fan was covered. There must have been thousands and it was quite fitting that it was actually Halloween as well.
One of the numerous nudibranch found on the night dive at Yilliet Slope
After a moody day, where I’m guessing the weather gods were celebrating Halloween, I finally switched to macro on the night dive and my photography was rewarded for it. An elusive pygmy squid started the dive but didn’t allow me to get a photo with its tricky movements. Still fun to watch and see, before once again, nudibranch were the stars of the show. A free swimming black and orange flatworm mesmerised mid-water, but it was a super tiny nudibranch of only around a centimetre long that I admired most and took some time to photograph. Then it was the turn of crustaceans once again. A couple of different types of decorator crab, a couple of lobster species and a whip coral shrimp finished off the dive after the sea slug starter.
It was a fun game of dodge the jellyfish on the dive at Four Kings. Such a unique experience for me on a dive
The next day, the wide-angle opportunities improved drastically. Although, rather annoyingly, I stuck with macro on the first dive at Neptune’s Fan Sea. I hadn’t seen a Denise pygmy seahorse before and was desperate to get a shot of one before the trip was over. This site was a great opportunity. It was sea fan heaven, but that does mean there’s a lot more places to look. The topography was incredible on the dive, a cliff of sea fans greeted us and made wide angle a good option. It was such a relaxing dive with a small school of bumphead parrotfish making the occasional pass, and the soft coral formations continued in huge numbers and were so impressive. I did manage a couple of nice nudibranch shots but the seahorse remained elusive for our group.
I decided to switch back to wide angle for Four Kings and that was certainly the right choice. A swarm of jellyfish greeted us on the dive and made it one of the most memorable of the trip. There was so much life around the pinnacles as the fish life danced a merry dance. The game of dodge the jellyfish entertained throughout and it was interesting to see as they’d get trapped on the sea fans. Something I’d never experienced before on such an incredible dive site. Barracuda point finished off the day’s diving in relaxing style, with a stunning top reef. Yes, I saw my first two Denise pygmy seahorses here, but no, I had my wide angle on. It was a great site for photographing lionfish though and there was a small school of barracuda giving the site its name.
The lionfish on Barracuda Point were happy to pose for photos
Although “The Jellyfish Dive” was an amazing highlight of the day, it wasn’t actually diving that finished the day in style. A sunset cruise in Wayilbatan delivered those feels. You know the ones, when you’re in a beautiful place, at a beautiful time and with only a handful of people. You get that completely content feeling and just forget all your worries and live for that moment. It was a spontaneous trip out as well, as the itinerary was to trek to Love Lagoon. However, the guests on the trip before advised it would probably be best to take it off the itinerary for a bit. Unfortunately, with a forced Covid break and lack of maintenance care, the stairs have become slightly dangerous for trekking. The alternative didn’t disappoint and in fact excelled. An exploratory journey, where even the crew didn’t really know where we were going, took us to some breathtaking views with an amazing sunset backdrop. The glass like sea provided the perfect stage with its mirror like reflections. Then in the shallows we could see every bit of coral and life we passed, before tilting your head and following the cliff face up to amazing limestone islands covered in lush green rainforest. Just beautiful!!
The sunset cruise at Wayilbatan was one of the highlights of the whole trip
With only two days and six dives left, one of my main goals was to photograph a Denise pygmy seahorse. I was in a catch 22 though, there were some memorable wide-angle dives to come. Starting with Boo Window and the arch swim through creating a dramatic image with a diver. I was happy with those wide-angle photos, but guess what? We did see a pygmy again. Still, I wasn’t to be defeated and we also had the friendliest hawksbill turtle on the dive too.
Next up was Shadow Reef (a.k.a Magic Mountain), in the hope to see the majestic Oceanic manta rays. We entered through a concentrated section of bad visibility and then the weather also changed with a storm passing over while we were below. It went dark underwater once more and unfortunately there were no mantas to be seen during the dive. It was still such a special dive site with schooling jackfish, a small school of batfish, another friendly hawksbill, Napoleon wrasse and my first whitetip reef sharks of the trip.
I had to switch to macro and hope for a pygmy at Whale Rock. No such luck unfortunately, but it was an amazing macro dive with numerous crustaceans and my favourite photos of whip coral shrimp. A Pikachu nudibranch was another great nudibranch find by one of my dive buddies. There might have been no seahorse due to skeleton shrimp infesting all the sea fans, but I was really happy with the macro photography success on this dive.
Two whip coral shrimp provided another macro treat at Whale Rock
The night dive at Romeo carried on with the magnificent macro theme. We were there to try and see a walking shark again but unfortunately it remained elusive on this dive. Typical, when I have all my equipment working! However, a friendly cuttlefish, some pygmy squid and more crustaceans made the dive memorable still. Can I get to photograph a Denise pygmy with only two dives left?? I really hope so…
We finished our diving in Raja Ampat at Tank Rock and Boo West. I was advised both dives would be preferably wide angle. I knew I needed to stick to macro though, with seeing three Denise pygmies previously while shooting wide angle. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity before I left Raja Ampat. Then, as the dive started, I began to lose hope once again. Skeleton shrimp filled the sea fans once more and I thought that would be enough to scare any seahorse to another site. BUT!! It wasn’t long before my guide Aghi worked his magic and found a beautiful little Denise pygmy seahorse for me to photograph. Phew!!! The pressure was off for the dive early on, but now I just needed to get a photo of these difficult to photograph critters. Skeleton shrimp were still sharing the sea fan with the seahorse and parts of them tended to get in the way but without a nice composition of both. I did manage to get some decent in focus shots and my diving in Raja Ampat was complete. Mission successful for another new species for me. An orangutan crab and some nice photos of the skeleton shrimp completed the dive before a switch back to wide angle for Boo West.
The arch at Boo Window provided a dramatic scene with my model Chi (@thescubamermaid)
While the visibility wasn’t great (but not terrible) for the final dive, it was another stunning dive in paradise, with once again amazing sea fans littering the reef wall in pristine condition. Then came my favourite schooling fish to see, as what must have been around a hundred batfish/spadefish were seen cruising in the current. Such an amazing sight, with a couple of blacktip reef sharks also coming to say goodbye. The real surprise and the memorable moment of the dive came from a tiny cuttlefish that was just bobbing around in the blue away from the reef. I really wasn’t expecting to see it there, as I caught it in the corner of my eye. It took me a second to confirm I wasn’t seeing things but sure enough it was there. It was super friendly and came right up to my mask and I can only hope it stayed safe away from the protection of the reef once we left.
Capturing a Denise pygmy seahorse on the last day was a perfect end to the trip
I’d been desperate to visit Raja Ampat for so long and thankfully it didn’t disappoint. La Galigo was the perfect vessel, with the perfect hosts to explore the area with that really made my time extra special. It’s certainly a place I won’t just want to visit once. I could see myself returning again and again and still being amazed by all the things I’d see. I ticked off so many new species in this biodiversity hotspot and took countless photos.
I now had a long journey home of two days, with 22 hours in Jakarta airport. I wasn’t fazed though, as I had so many photos to go through to keep me entertained and those memories kept me smiling throughout the journey. I’d recommend everyone (not just divers) to put Raja Ampat on your travel bucket list. It really is a true paradise and I can perfectly understand where the nickname – “The Last Paradise” comes from.
For more information about diving in Raja Ampat:
Whatsapp: +62 812 2000 2025
The flat calm water provided a beautiful reflection of the stunning landscape at sunset on the cruise
I’m hoping by now that you would have read the first part of my Ultimate Raja Ampat story with La Galigo Liveaboard. If not, then please check out Part 1 HERE. We really started with a bang and visited some incredible dive sites in the first few days. The amount of fish life seen on the dives was incredible and I could only hope the rest of the trip would continue to deliver.
I didn’t have to wait long before another unforgettable dive for the very first the next day. We were aiming for ‘Manta Ridge’ and as the name suggests, we were looking for the majestic manta rays. The anticipation was bursting as I love spending time with manta rays and the guides had already alluded to the fact they saw them on the current check. The current was strong and reef hooks were advised once we got to the ridge.
My group was the last in and as we worked our way along the ridge towards the cleaning station, it wasn’t long before a manta came into view. I managed to find a great spot to hook into and enjoyed the most amazing show. Stunning reef manta rays glided over my head within touching distance before hovering over the reef as they were cleaned thoroughly by black lip butterflyfish and other small fishes. This was how we spent most the dive at around only 10 metres before moving back along the ridge and shallowing up on top of the reef to hook in for our safety stop. HOWEVER, the best was yet to come for me personally, as I was reluctant to leave and dawdled behind the group, continually checking over my shoulder, until there it was…
An amazing encounter with a black manta ray at Manta Ridge
This was what I was hoping to see on my trip to Raja and to be close enough to get a photo I was truly happy with. I’d seen black manta rays before, but never close enough for a decent photo, now suddenly the opportunity presented itself. I saw my group just metres away hook onto the reef at 5-6 metres and I felt protected from the worst of the current, as this majestic manta suddenly glided within just a couple of metres of me. I couldn’t believe the interaction I was getting and it felt like I was completely alone with it for this short moment. It glided along the reef while getting cleaned before circling a couple of times within touching distance. I just kept shooting and hoping the photos were coming out ok, while my adrenalin was pumping through my body for one of the best manta ray encounters I’ve had. Thankfully I was more than happy with the images I got and the memories were even greater.
Always a treat to see a pygmy seahorse. In this case a Hippocampus bargibanti
It was only day four and I had already ticked off some real Raja Ampat bucket list moments. The pressure was certainly off but the day continued in style and showed the diversity of life here. After a second dive at Mayhem with numerous resting wobbegongs and an overly friendly hawksbill turtle, it was time to mix it up on the third dive and go small, really small. Raja Ampat is famous for pygmy seahorses, as it’s an incredible place for numerous healthy sea fans. I’d been advised you have the chance to see them on pretty much every dive, making it so hard to choose between macro and wide angle with the incredible choice here. For dive three though, I was advised Hippocampus bargibanti had been seen on the previous trip and I opted for macro. It didn’t disappoint and I was so happy to see the super cute bargibanti seahorses once again and have the chance to photograph them. Followed by one of my favourite critters no matter how many times I see them – the peacock mantis shrimp. I love it when a plan comes together!!
Wayag Lagoon trek was quite the adventure as we scrambled from the speedboats onto the limestone island
It was now time to head to the most northern part of the itinerary – Wayag. Famous for its stunning landscape and lagoon, I was really looking forward to mixing it up and taking a break from diving. Our first adventure of the day would be a trek up Wayag Lagoon instead of diving, although I couldn’t resist a quick swim with the blacktip reef sharks that were circling the boat before the trek.
The trek in itself was an interesting adventure. I wasn’t expecting it to be difficult and presumed it was stairs but I soon realised it wouldn’t be that easy. It made it much more fun though, as we navigated the footholds and scrambled up the formations in the limestone. The limestone can get quite sharp and you really have to have your concentration in check on this climb, but it is more than manageable for any fitness level if you take your time. It is only a short 20-minute hike but took longer due to being mesmerised by the incredible views with each step higher. One of the most stunning views I’ve been lucky enough to lay my eyes on. The different shades of blue of the glass like sea broken up by lush green rainforest covering the limestone islands. It’s so cliché to say “the view took my breath away” but there’s no other way to describe the scene.
The views of Wayag Lagoon were well worth the short trek up the limestone island
Diving around Wayag was all about macro critters for me. Two more day dives followed where again nudibranch of all shapes, size and colour made appearances. Our guide Aghi was brilliant at finding the really small flabellina variety. Squat lobsters, crabs and shrimps were the crustaceans keeping me entertained before one of the best night dives ever. Terserah Point is a sloping white sand dive looking for the weird and wonderful. Bobtail squid were seen in great numbers and were another first for me, with a long arm octopus, cuttlefish and decorator crab also putting on a show before the grand finale. The charismatic coconut octopus dazzling with its colours and tentacle show, while trying its best to hide between two shells. Again, another first for me, which was becoming quite the norm on this trip. Even having a close call with a box jellyfish right at the end of the dive, it got the adrenalin going but again another cool critter to see and my first.
A coconut octopus sets up home between two shells at Terserah Point night dive
The next couple of days we started to head south again, as we were aiming for the area around Misool Island and the marine reserve. We stopped at Kawe, Aljuy and Penemu along the way and the dives were all about the stunning coral that Raja Ampat is famous for. While also trying to see manta rays again at Eagle Rock 1. Unfortunately, the dive didn’t deliver mantas, although it was a stunning site with hawksbill turtle, wobbegong and the only banded sea krait I saw on a dive on the trip. However, we just happened to be diving the wrong island at Eagle Rock and when we surfaced, we saw mantas from the boat and took the opportunity to swim with them as six swam past at the surface. One bigger manta continued to circle a coral pinnacle beneath us – enough for another manta fix!
The soft coral formations were stunning at Batu Rufus
The swim throughs at Wofoh South and Batu Rufus provided stunning photography opportunities with amazing topography. The dancing anchovy school mesmerised, and the coral formations were breathtaking on all dives, none more so than the beautiful Melissa’s Garden. This was a relaxing dive on top of some of the best hard coral gardens I’ve seen. Anthias danced in and out with Napoleon wrasse a constant sight throughout. It was also another amazing dive for nudibranch, quite the popular macro subject in Raja Ampat. Pianemo trek on the morning of day seven was again a welcome break from diving and something different to enjoy and see the amazing scenery from a vantage point. A much easier trek, as a well-maintained staircase leads you up to the viewpoint over the lagoon. Breathtaking views were waiting, while meeting local villagers and buying fresh coconuts provided welcome company from our liveaboard bubble.
I was so excited to find this small wunderpus octopus on Wofoh North night dive
While all these sites were truly special, it was again the night dive that stole the show for me. Another sloping white sand dive but this time at Wofoh North. Again, it was all about the weird and wonderful, as the guides alluded to it being a great place for wunderpus octopus. I was keeping my fingers crossed, as it was another new species for me to see and as it happened, I didn’t have to wait long into the dive. There it was, sitting perfectly still in the sand, no bigger than the palm of my hand and guess who found it? Yes!! That’s right! I was so excited to spot it in the sand myself, although it took me a second to make sure it definitely was an octopus. What an amazing dive this was for the whole 50 minutes. Another wunderpus was found, that was actually still in its larval stage; an amazing find. Spearing mantis shrimp, nudibranch, sea moths, bobtail squid, devil scorpionfish and more were just the tip of the iceberg on another amazing night dive.
This place just continued to deliver with its amazing biodiversity and it was now time to head south on a 16 hour crossing heading close to Misool Island. Stay tuned for our adventures on the final four days diving the south.
For more information about diving in Raja Ampat:
Whatsapp: +62 812 2000 2025
One of the number of hawksbill turtles seen on most of the reef dives
Ultimate Raja Ampat – The Last Paradise (Part 3 of 3)
Ultimate Raja Ampat – The Last Paradise (Part 2 of 3)
Ultimate Raja Ampat – The Last Paradise (Part 1 of 3)
