Black Tip Reef shark - Carcharhinus melanopterus in Semporna

Black tip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) are very infrequently seen on Pom Pom Island off Semporna.  Individuals are occasionally seen on very deep dives in the early morning at the N tip.  One juvenile was seen in the shallows in Oct 2012.  The fishermen caught it!!!  We now employ those fishermen and with our education programme in their village, we may manage to protect the next shark that comes to the island.

 Sipadan the world famous dive destination (fully protected) is only 70km away and they have a few Black tip reef sharks; about 1 seen each month.  Sipadan does have lots of White tip reef sharks and small numbers of Grey reef sharks which are seen every day.  Pom Pom island doesn't have the same shark population as Sipadan but we know there are lots of fish on the deep wall below 50m and it is possible there are sharks down there that we don't see during the day.

We do know where there are a few baby blacktips in the Semporna region but for obvious reasons we are not disclosing the location.

More info about volunteering with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 

Rescued coral cat sharks released on Pom Pom Island

On a trip to a live fish resturant in Kota Kinabalu, one of our volunteers was so dismayed by the sight of live coral cat sharks for sale in the aquariums that they bought all the sharks to save them from being eaten.  The sharks remained in the rstaurant tanks until we could organise the transport across to Semporna and out to the island.  The initial purchase was 12 sharks but the restaurant aquired an additional 13 before we came to collect our live sharks so we eventually bought and transported 25 small coral catsharks.  These were transported to the island in a large ice chest filled with water and oxygen.  There was no mortality or signs of stress when the sharks were released into the sea at high tide in front of the TRACC camp and Celebes Beach Resort.  Some of the sharks swam off but most were content to hide in or near the rocks on the reef slope.
The next morning no sharks could be found but since they are nocturnal we expected them to hide during the day.

The sharks were seen occasionally on night dives over the next month so hopefully they will settle down and become resident.

Stay posted as we report on sightings and shark activity.

Video 2015 

update  jan 2016