Payar Island, which comprises of four uninhabited islands - Payar, Lembu, Kaca and Segantang - makes up Malaysia's oldest Marine Park sanctuary.

These islands, famous for the varied and colourful marine life that they support, offer the best Diving sites on Peninsular Malaysia's west coast. Access is not a problem as speedboats and catamarans ply the route on a regular basis from Langkawi and Penang.

At Payar Island, the largest of the four islands, you will find the Marine Park Centre which was set up and operated by the Fisheries Department. Here, you'll find useful information on the do's and don'ts while visiting this marine park.

If you are not into water activities, do check out the two hiking trails that have been constructed to enable visitors to explore and enjoy breathtaking views of the surrounding sea and beyond. Gazebos, picnic tables, BBQ pits and restroom facilities are also available for public use. Although picnics and camping are allowed, cutting of trees and open burning are strictly prohibited.

Nearby is a jetty, and just a short distance away is a pontoon with facilities for easy access to the reef below.The waters of Pulau Payar have an additional attraction -- artificial reefs built from tyres, concrete blocks and old boats, which over the years have developed into mature reefs that are teeming with marine life.

Payar Island Dive Sites

House Reef

Common Sighting
Snappers, Yellow Tail Fusiliers, Groupers and variety of nudibranch species

Dive Site Briefing
This area has a lot of boulder corals (porites sp.) with abundant and friendly fish life due to the fact that they are fed by tourists daily. A mixture of branching corals and barrel sponge make this site their home as well.       

Japanese Garden

Common Sighting
Snappers, Yellow Tail Fusiliers, Groupers and variety of nudibranch species


Langkawi Coral Platform Reef
This dive site is similar to the House Reef with lots of boulder corals but the fishes here are not scared of divers or snokellers as they normally wait to be fed by tourist who come here on daily trips to the platform. Here you could see a lot of large groupers and big moray eels. For a non-diver who wants to try and experience Diving for the first time, they can opt to try a programme called Discovery Scuba created by a dive operator who operates on the Langkawi Coral Platform.



Shark Point

Common Sighting
Black tip Sharks and reef fishes

Dive Site Briefing
This area is the other tip of Pulau Payar with a small "Datuk" shrine on the headland. Surrounding the tip is generally sandy with scattered boulder corals; the observant diver is frequently rewarded with sightings of black tip reef sharks (2-4 ft). According to local lore, they are the guardians of the "Datuk" shrine. Rounding the tip, you'll find patches of stag horn corals interspersed with boulder corals.



Kaca Reef

Common Sighting
Black tip reef sharks, Barracudas and variety of reef fishes

Dive Site Briefing
This Island can be circumnavigated in a dive if you don't linger too much. The best reef is on the northwest side and the rocky north shore. Stick to a shallower dive of 5m (15 ft) to 10m (30 ft) after that is more of muddy sand. If you dive later in the afternoon you get to see black tip reef shark plying the north side and as you round the northwest tip you'll get a chance to see the resident school of barracudas.


Lembu Rock

Common Sighting
Giant groupers,  rock cods, black tip reef sharks and variety of reef fishes

Dive Site Briefing
This place is great for seeing big groupers and rock cods. The rock formation here is quite interesting, some part actually look like a castle wall with minarets at certain angle of view. This site is dominated by hard corals, with the deeper (fringe) part of the rock taken up by big colonies of tubastrea. The shallower end facing Pulau Lembu has branching hard corals (mainly acroporidae sp.) and mushroom corals (fungidae sp.).


Coral Garden

Common Sighting
Fish life is abundant. Groupers, rock cod and snappers are common here & schools of fusilier and sea perch. Look into the crevices & holes too, you'll be rewarded with glimpses of cleaner shrimps and beautiful cowries.

Dive Site Briefing
This area is enclosed in the southwest bay of Pulau Payar. This is one            of the most frequented dive site in Pulau Payar. The bay area is rocky with scattering of hard corals. A resident green moray eel can be found just 5 m (15 ft) away from the inner mooring buoy. If you're lucky you might get a good look at a huge (4 ft) barracuda as well. He usually patrols the area between the house reef and coral garden. ?The other side of the bay is a sloping wall starting at 7 m (20 ft) and ends at 45 ft on the shallow end; then it extends itself towards the tip up to the maximum depth. The best view are at the shallow end where the wall is covered with cock's comb soft coral (dendronepthia sp.).


Segantang Rock

Common Sighting
Fish life is good though. Shoals of juveniles to giant groupers are common. You can also see butterfly fish, lion fish, scorpion fish, jacks, rainbow runners, fusiliers, puffer fish and occasional white tip reef shark, leopard shark and giant stingrays. Look closely and you'll find a profusion of nudibrachs and you can find murex shells here as well.

Dive Site Briefing
This is the bigger of the rock outcrop but you can circumnavigate it in a single dive leisurely. This site is quite bare in term of coral life but teaming with anemones and their associated resident clown fishes. This site would be a good leisurely second dive after you've done the deeper Segantang UW reef.


Segantang UW Reef

Common Sighting
This place is great for seeing big groupers, rock cods and other occasional pelagic fishes that pass through.

Dive Site Briefing
This part of the outcrop actually extends underwater from the small rock outcrop and slopes to a max. depth of 27m (95 ft.). The easy way to locate this reef is to start your dive at the south-west tip of the smaller rock outcrop; proceed down to the edge of the rock and follow the fringe of the rock & you'll eventually reach it.