Diving Pulau Perak

On our trip to Langkawi I decided to go via Pulau Perak and check out the waters there.

Pulau Perak itself is a small button like Island in the middle of Malacca Strait, some 65' WNW of Langkawi Island. It is quite elevated and could be seen well from 20' away. As we were approaching the Island the day seemed to start as overcast but as we came closer the cloud cover broke and we got a splendid sunshine. The winds were practically nil and we got only a very low Easterly swell. A perfect day for diving.

Pulau Perak

I stopped 1' off and stopped my engines and crew prepared the dinghy to be launched. After that we loaded our dive gear and off we went, me, Dubey and Rajaram. Even close up to shore we got depths of 80+ meters so the Island had sheer drop off's right down to the seabottom. We could also see that there was a large bird population inhabiting the Island.

Pulau Perak

Pulau Perak is very impressive close by with it's imposing cliff walls and scarce vegetation. On top of the Island is a small Malaysian military base. In the south is a small bay with depths around 20m and a small jetty. On the jetty we saw some guys fishing and we asked if it was OK to dive, no problems came the reply.

Pulau Perak

First dive we started in SE corner and went N on the E side. The corals were beautiful and a lot of fish was seen. Eventually we did 3 dives in total and explored the whole E side of the Island. The drop off's are magnificent (straight down 80-90m) with small crevices that one rounds and always come to new vistas.

Pulau Perak

I could see Snappers, Barracuda, Mackerel and the usual coral fish. The visibility was at least 25m, maybe more. Deeper down the water turned very cold, maybe just a few degrees but it felt freezing to us. I could also see that the Island was popular with fishermen as many rocks were covered with nets. A broken anchor line was splayed open like a palm tree and floating alone at 30m depth. The current was less the 0.5kts as I could see from the distance we drifted during the day.

Pulau Perak

We went back to Kalizma for lunch and watched a small reef shark circling the ship, perhaps in the hopes of food. We also saw plenty of dolphins and I think I also saw a Dorado.

Dolphins

All in all a very good site to visit although one can't land ashore and the area is very exposed to the elements when the weather turns sour. Seeing also that the base personnel did not have any boats I assume they must be helicopter lifted ashore.

Pulau Perak

The distance will also keep this Island safe from exploitation as not many tour operators will have people sitting in boats for such a trip and todays fuel prices.

Pulau Perak

I also found an interesting article of the Island.