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Lankayan Island is a very small tropical coral resort island in the Sulu Sea, northwest of the island of Borneo, in the state of Sabah, in Malaysia, and 15km from Sandakan Lankayan Island has many species of attractive flora and fauna. The only resort on the island, Lankayan Island Dive Resort, was built in 1997. Divers are attracted by myriad macro marine life, coral and sunken wrecks. Lankayan Island is known for its whale shark sightings.
The fauna that inhabit the waters of the island include scads, yellow tail, barracudas, and jacks. Other fauna include black tip sharks, giant clams, claw anemone fishes, decorator and spider crabs and, coral shrimps, nudibranchs, prawn gobies, prawn gobies, seahorses, ghost pipefish, flying gurnards, parrot fishes, rays and guitarfish. The indigenous plants include casuarinas trees and pandan screw pine.
Green and hawksbill sea turtles make this island a key nesting spot in the Salu Sea. The turtles are banded by the local marine preserve staff, the eggs are retrieved and counted, and then reburied in a fenced off area to prevent poaching and predation. After hatching, the birth count is recorded and then the young turtles are safely released to sea. On 13 October 2003 Lankayan Island was declared part of the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area (SIMCA). As part of SIMCA, all resource harvesting (fishing etc.) will be prohibited by the state government of Sabah, Malaysia. |
