Juli’s Experience Diving in Singapore
Written by Juli Cole, January 2025.
Believe it or not, there is a diving scene!
I am going to do this in sections for the sake of the readers. Though the dive sites are tiny and few, each deserves some detail other than “been there, saw that” approach. For being so small, each dive site has a lot to offer.
Having moved to the little island that is home to a great big city, and an expensive one at that, my dive buddy and I were surprised to find a passionate diving community here. I mean obviously we had met Singaporean divers before, but diving AROUND Singapore? Had not heard of that!
At first glance, it does not look promising. Generally speaking, to the north is the silty channel between Malaysia and Singapore. To the east lies the conclusion of the Straits of Malacca (also not known for its crystalline waters) to the south (and east) is Indonesia and to the west is a lot of open water until one reaches Sarawak.
Not that there are huge swathes of reefs to dive on – there are currently four officially authorized places to dive. Technically five if you count the aquarium or six as there are two tanks you can dive in (more on that later). My dive buddy and I have dived on three of the “six” – and surprisingly found it challenging and rewarding.
Here is a basic map of Singapore (courtesy of Smarttraveller.gov.au):
Here is a zoomed in photo of the southern oceanic boundaries of Singapore (courtesy of Google maps): 
And we zoom in some more and we just about have it:
That is three of them: Pulau Hantu West, Pulau Hantu North and Jong or Junk Island. The fourth is St John’s Island, just below Sentosa island, south of Marina Bay Sands. We have not dived there yet so I do not know the exact location.
As you can see on the map, there is Sister Island Marine park. There was formerly diving allowed there, but it is reported that it is under conservation development at this time.
And the fifth and sixth sites are within the Singapore Aquarium. One they call “Open Water” which contains the typical reef fish and the other is the Shark Tank – an impressive structure filled with an impressive variety of sharks and rays.
We visited the Shark tank (from outside) – they have all of the main individuals named. The animals are all well fed so if you do take a dive – “no eating here tonight!”
The cost for this adventure or the Open Water tank is S$328 – about RM 1080
Our first dive was on Pulau Hantu West, just to the side of Pulau Hantu Besar. Pulau Hantu or Ghost Island is actually comprised of two islands, Kecil and Besar, in Malay succinctness, small and large. These islands have an interesting legend behind the “haunting” name. The sanctioned version belongs to an old Malay legend about two warriors locked into a fierce battle. They led their people day and night, neither gaining an advantage. In some versions, they are the only two remaining, all their people dead at the bottom of the sea. A water spirit upset by their continued commotion and the blood in the water decided to end them and sucked them down in a massive whirlpool. Even still they continued their battle. Some versions say they killed each other, others say they just died still locked in battle. Some versions say the gods above turned them into islands, some say the water spirit did. Supposedly their ghosts can still be seen chasing each other in battle.
An article from 1939 as quoted by Jerome Lim in his blog, The Long and Winding Road, relates that the islands have a “long forgotten story of death and cruelty” ending in many unmarked graves on the islands and that it is these spirits that give the island is name.
I could believe in spirits when we did that first dive. As we descended, the water was green, murky and absolutely disorienting. There was no way to tell if it was up or down other than the guide rope I clung to. I could not see my dive companions and if anybody else was around me, living or dead, they were hidden in the green murk. However it did clear up when we hit the bottom and visibility cleared from zero to a little more than 1-2 meter. This is the challenge actually on the dive sites we have been on in Singapore waters. Some days are better than others but when I asked around, the waters are typically on the murky side.
The channel between the main island of Singapore and these southern little islands is the main port of Singapore. The distance is not that far, but our boat was only allowed to travel at slower speeds so it takes about 45 minutes from the marina to get to these dive sites. The channel is only 25 meters deep – quite shallow – and this is what the straits of Malacca empties into. There are massive ocean freighters everywhere mostly at anchor waiting for their turn at the cargo docks. I believe then this is what contributes to the constant murkiness: the shallow depth and the movement of water through this area not only from the tides and the flow from the straits but the movement of the ships as well, slow as they may be. It just keeps churning everything up and the water is not deep enough to absorb it. Everything under water is covered in silt.
But amazingly life is thriving! Nudibranchs galore! And weird little creatures not seen before – odd coral. On Pulau west, there is sea grass known for harboring “Shawn the Sheep” nudibranchs (Costasiella kuroshimae). On our dive in Jong, can you believe we started getting bored with all the variety of nudibranchs! What is missing is much of the active reef fish and no obvious predators such as lionfish or moray eels. Unfortunately Singapore’s fishing laws are ambiguous – the National Park areas are protected but being a small country, these are tiny areas compared to the larger open water. Outside these areas, net fishing is permissible. Also neighboring countries are not subject to these restrictions and more than likely also harvesting from the same populations. The fish we do see are skittish and don’t accompany the divers like we have experienced in other areas. However I do not have enough facts to conclude this or that reason, only what I have observed. And with the limited visibility, there might be much I am missing.
PULAU HANTU WEST – as you can see from the photos, the suspended silt is evident.
This is an unidentified hard coral – the colour was quite striking against the general murk.
All photos property of Anthony Cole.
We have not seen a red coloured Feather star before. On our dive at Pulau Hantu North, I observed a bright red fan coral – not sure if this is a colour of choice in the area or if merely, these colours are so remarkable against the green background.
This is what I believe is a juvenile Broadclub Cuttlefish. We have spied several of these, sometimes in pairs, at both dive sites on Pulau Hantu. And they are small, 10 cm at the biggest. So possibly the islands are a nursery for the local cuttlefish populations.
Beautiful little starfish Iconaster longimanus – perfect for this area as it feeds on detritus and micro-organisms.
A splendid specimen of Pteraeolidia semperi in the family of nudibranchs commonly called Sea Dragons. Again, notice the reddish colour.
The challenges of diving in this water is the murkiness and low visibility of course. Life is there, but you have to look for it through the silt (which you can see in the photo above how the coral is there, but covered by the fine layer of “sea dust”). But there is much to see, more than expected, and it is rewarding when you come across something. This was our first Singapore dive. We did two dives there before heading back. We really did not enjoy these dives; there was some additional things that contributed. Part of our problems however was due to a learning curve. These tiny dive sites need to be approached in different manner than the wide sweeping coral reefs of say Indonesia, Borneo and other areas. The focus of the dives is different and thus new skills need to be developed such as navigating in low visibility. That then is the challenge and actually the fun part. We look forward to diving Pulau Hantu West again – maybe a nightdive! (maybe not, shiver)
Check out Flow’s dive trips for this year and you may find some of these marine life.