Semporna Dive Operators: What We Could Verify (2026)
Not a ranking and not a recommendation. Every dive and snorkel operator on Semporna that appears in the Green Fins register, showing for each one what an independent source confirms, what the operator asserts about itself, and what we could not find in any register we know of. No operator paid to be listed.
What this list actually shows
- 13 operators in the register on 2026-08-12.
- 12 hold Certified membership, meaning an in-person assessment within the last 12 months.
- 1 hold Digital membership, a self-evaluation with no minimum standard to pass.
- 0 publish which languages their instructors teach in. It is the field readers ask for most and the one almost nobody fills in.
- 0 could be checked for insurance. No public register carries it.
Search
Filters narrow the list below. With JavaScript off, every operator is still listed in full.
Showing all 13 operators.
- Instructor languages. No agency profile we could reach, and no register publishes instructor languages. A website language switcher is a fact about the website, not about the staff.
- Insurance. No public register of operator insurance exists for Malaysia.
- Licence. No tourism business licence number published on the operator's own site, and the Malaysia register cannot be queried by operator name from here.
- Staff on the roster. No staff breakdown published for this operation.
- Training agency. Not stated in a form we could read. Several of these sites render their content with JavaScript we do not execute, so this is absence of a reading, not absence of an affiliation.
In the table: REG a register or authority states it and we opened it. SAYS the operator states it, on their site or their agency profile: evidence of the claim, not that it is true. — nobody publishes it. Open a row for the source and the date.
| Operator | Green Fins | Assessment | Agency | Instructor languages | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scuba Junkie Sipadan | Gold ≤50 REG | in person | PADI SAYS | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Gold Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID CFD68. checked in a register Training agency. Names PADI on its own homepage, which is a claim and not a membership we could look up. operator says so Website. website | |||||
| TRACC Borneo | Gold ≤50 REG | in person | PADI SAYS | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Gold Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID WTE15. checked in a register Training agency. Names PADI on its own homepage, which is a claim and not a membership we could look up. operator says so Website. website | |||||
| Makatagih Semporna travel & tours | Silver ≤150 REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Silver Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID WQD00. checked in a register Website. website did not respond on 2026-08-12, which may be the site or may be us | |||||
| OHHSEM TRAVEL | Silver ≤150 REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Silver Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID FHH83. checked in a register Website. website | |||||
| SEMPORNA AQUA PLANET TRAVEL & TOURS SDN BHD | Silver ≤150 REG | in person | PADI SAYS | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Silver Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID NZR10. checked in a register Training agency. Names PADI on its own homepage, which is a claim and not a membership we could look up. operator says so Website. website | |||||
| THE BUWAN DIVE RESORT | Silver ≤150 REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Silver Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID IEH16. checked in a register Website. website | |||||
| The Reef Dive Resort | Silver ≤150 REG | in person | PADI SAYS | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Silver Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID NRY53. checked in a register Training agency. Names PADI on its own homepage, which is a claim and not a membership we could look up. operator says so Website. website | |||||
| BORNEO SEA TRAVEL AND TOUR SDN BHD | Bronze ≤200 REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Bronze Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID NJV16. checked in a register Website. website | |||||
| camrish semporna travel | Bronze ≤200 REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Bronze Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID VZK76. checked in a register Website. website | |||||
| MAGLAMI TOUR AND TRAVEL SDN BHD | Bronze ≤200 REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Certified Bronze Member, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID VXM61. checked in a register Website. website | |||||
| Seaventures Dive Rig Sdn Bhd | Digital REG | self-evaluated | PADI SAYS | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Digital Member, assessed none, self-evaluation only. Register ID SOR40. checked in a register Training agency. Names PADI on its own homepage, which is a claim and not a membership we could look up. operator says so Website. website | |||||
| Dayang Resort Semporna | Restricted REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Restricted, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID SCV91. checked in a register Website. website | |||||
| Egang-Egang resort | Restricted REG | in person | — | — | — |
Source, dates and detailGreen Fins. Restricted, assessed in-person, within the last 12 months. Register ID VCT85. checked in a register Website. website (a social media page, which blocks automated checks, so we confirmed only that the register carries this address) | |||||
What this directory refuses to tell you
Insurance. No public register of operator liability cover exists for Malaysia, so any directory claiming to have checked it is quoting the operator back to you. Guide ratios and in-water practice. The Green Fins assessment covers environmental impact, not supervision. Instructor languages, where they are blank. A blank means no answer yet, not that nobody there speaks your language. It is the most commonly invented field in this industry, and a website language switcher is not evidence for it: that tells you a translator was hired once, not who is on the boat this season.
The list can only contain operators who joined Green Fins. A shop that never applied is absent, and absence here says nothing about it. Operators around Semporna, Mabul, Mataking and Pom Pom in the Green Fins register. Sipadan itself is permit-controlled and the permit allocation is not something any register publishes, so ask the operator how many they hold.
Sources
- Green Fins member register (Reef-World Foundation with the UN Environment Programme). Queried through its store locator at 4.48/118.62, radius 40 km, filtered to Semporna. greenfins.net, checked 2026-08-12.
- Green Fins membership definitions. A Certified Member "received an in-person assessment from a Green Fins assessor within the last 12 months" and is scored out of 330 where lower is better: Gold to 50, Silver to 150, Bronze to 200. A Digital Member self-evaluates, and "Digital Members do not have to pass a minimum requirement", on a separate scale to 10 running the other way, so the two scores cannot be compared. Certified, Digital, checked 2026-08-12.
- PADI dive shop profiles at apps.padi.com for instructor languages and staff counts, read where the operation publishes a store number we could find and has filled those fields in. Most have done neither, which is why that column is thin rather than absent.
- Operator websites, read on 2026-08-12 for the self-declared fields only. Of the 13 addresses the register carries, 0 are dead, 1 are social media pages that refuse automated checks, and 1 refused us for other reasons. Each is marked on its own card rather than quietly dropped or called dead.
- Our own Semporna guide for the place itself, and how to get certified while travelling for choosing a course.