Message in a Bottle
Turtle Tomb
Sipadan Island, Malaysian Borneo
Its pitch black. I am 20 meters underwater and a further 60 meters inside a flooded cave under the tropical island of Sipadan off of Borneo’s East Coast. My dive mask has been ripped off my face and I have just been violently spun around and around. Once I come to a stop, I pause and I let things settle, not just the sand and sediment that has been kicked up by all the commotion but also my nerves. Although I knew it was coming, and that I am safe with my dive buddy close at hand, the practicalities of being blind and without an immediate clear path to the gorgeous sunlight and sweet air above is unnerving to say the least. After 15 minutes of calmly carrying out radial sweeps using an underwater reel and line I finally locate the main guideline we had laid down from the cave entrance and into its pitch black depths. My dive buddy then hands me my mask and signals that I have completed my cave diving refresher course. I can now forge ahead with my real reason for being here.
Turtle tomb is comprised of a large open cavern that starts at a depth of 20 meters on Sipadan Islands West facing wall. The cavern extends back a further 50 meters until a narrow tunnel branches off to the left and opens out into a cave – the Turtle Tomb proper. There is only one other entrance to turtle tomb and that’s up in one corner where the cave peaks out at the blue warm waters of the coral reef but is only just large enough for unwary turtles but a very tight squeeze and scrabble for a scuba diver with 3 dive tanks. Sipadan island and its surrounding coral reefs are famous for its extremely healthy population of Green and Hawksbill sea turtles that nest on its protected sandy beaches and rest, mate and feed upon the surrounding seagrass beds and coral reefs. It is not uncommon to see upwards of 15 turtles on one dive or snorkel around Sipadan. Sea turtles can hold their breath for several hours and like nothing better than finding some comfortable coral reef ledge to tuck themselves into. As nighttime and darkness falls over Sipadan unwary turtles have in the past mistakenly pushed further into the reef ledge that leads to the Turtle Tomb window opening and into the cave itself. Once inside they become disorientated and with no clear exit marked by the sunlight of the day these unfortunate turtles drown in the darkness. All that is left are the scattered skeletons on the cave ledges and cave floor where they have finally come to rest. Some skeletons are fully intact and stare up at you as you pass catch them in your torch beam, others are laid about in pieces with tiny blind cave shrimps scuttling over them.
I first dived into the depths of the Turtle Tomb back in 1997 whilst working as a marine biologist on the Seas of Borneo Expedition but only gained my cavern and cave diving qualifications until 1998. Over the years I have dived the cave multiple times and am always left in awe and mixed melancholic feelings as I finally exit and stare up at the sunlit blue waters outside. 17 years on and I thought it prudent to put myself through an up-to-date refresher course before tackling the task at hand – filming the cave and turtle skeletons for a new natural history TV series.
Over the course of the next 3 days I spent a total of 15 hours underwater in the caves, the shortest dive lasting 2 hours and the longest just over 3 hours. It truly is a mythical and breathtaking (excuse the pun) location and I found the challenge of lighting each of the cave features and skeletons a complex art form in itself. But after each dive as we emerged from the cave entrance 20 meters down on the coral reef wall and looked up you couldn’t help but feel relieved and on several occasions as we rose to the surface turtles would leave their resting spots and drift up to breathe as if to remind us all what was at stake.
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