Julius Canahap, PADI Scuba Instructor and former dive student of SFB MY director Terence Lim, posted a first hand account of the blast that he heard near Sibuan Island in Tun Sakaran Marine Park, also known as Semporna Islands Park is located at the entrance to Darvel Bay, off the East coast of Sabah near the town of Semporna.

SFB MY’s Terence Lim confirmed that our arrays picked up the blasts.

Here is his account (formatting has been adjusted):

“For almost 19years of diving I always hear dynamite fishing while diving,but today was the strongest blast I ever heard and scared me so much,I have to cancel my last dive for my student who supposed to finish open water course today due to safety reasons,

Incident happen near sibuan island.

Time between 12:20-12:55noon.

Less then 10min 3 blast dynamite fishing while we are diving,after the second blast we decided to stop the dive and do safety stop,while doing safety stop the 3rd blast which the strongest blast make me go up so quickly to the surface,(no joke,super scary).

Soon we go up to the boat another two more blast dynamite fishing can hear from the surface,

Total 5 dynamite fishing less then 30min.

To my fellow divemaster/instructor in semporna plz take note when you do diving around semporna,make a good judgment especially like this situation,today it was a close call for me,

No wonder we see two turtles death in the sea today,the government please do something about it

STRONGLY CONDEMN DYNAMITE FISHING”