Turtle Islands Park

Why go

Three protected islands

40 kilometres north of Sandakan in the Sulu Sea, the Turtle Islands Park protects 1,740 hectares of coral reefs and three islands. Overnight stays on Selingan are capped at 50 guests, with the evening programme organised around the rangers' conservation work. The programme offers a chance to learn how rangers protect turtle eggs and manage hatchling releases into the sea.

The Turtle Islands Park was gazetted as a marine park by the Sabah state government in 1977. It comprises 3 Malaysian islands: Selingan, Bakkungan Kechil and Gulisaan. The park serves as a critical refuge for the globally Endangered green turtle and the Critically Endangered hawksbill turtle. Because marine turtles migrate broadly across the Sulu and Celebes Seas, they require protection that crosses national borders.

On 31 May 1996 the governments of Malaysia and the Philippines signed a memorandum of agreement to create the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area. This pact joined Sabah's 3 islands with 6 islands in the Philippines to form the world's first transboundary protected area dedicated to marine turtles. A joint management committee coordinates conservation strategies and anti-poaching enforcement across the maritime border. The protection is vital because the demand for turtle eggs drives a resilient black market. Under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 it is illegal to trade or possess marine turtle eggs yet poachers still raid unprotected beaches across the region.

A working conservation outpost

On Selingan, you spend the night at a working conservation outpost. The island's facilities protect an Endangered species and your evening follows the rangers' conservation work.

The strict group viewing protocol puts the nesting turtles first. It ensures that 50 people do not trample the beach and disturb the broader nesting population. You spend the evening waiting in the cafeteria until a ranger calls you to join the group around 1 nesting female. If you prefer to explore underwater, Sipadan offers diving among resident green and hawksbill turtles. If you want to understand how Sabah Parks actively intercepts the poaching trade and puts millions of hatchlings into the sea, Selingan shows exactly how it works.

The night turtle programme

Selingan welcomes overnight guests for the turtle programme because the turtles emerge almost entirely after dark.

To protect the beaches from human footprint, you are restricted to the visitor centre after dusk. Sabah Parks rangers patrol the shoreline until they find a female that has finished digging her egg chamber and has entered oviposition. At this point she is in a trance and the 50-person group is brought out to watch.

You watch the female lay a clutch that usually numbers between 40 and 120 eggs while a ranger collects them into a bucket. You then walk to the fenced hatchery to watch the ranger carefully rebury the eggs in a hand-dug chamber. Finally you gather at the water's edge to see the release of a batch of neonates from a clutch laid roughly 50 days earlier. Rangers enforce silent observation and control flash photography strictly.

The turtle nesting months

Sabah has no single dry season and the east coast receives rain all year. The Sandakan station records about 3,220 mm of rain annually.

Green turtles nest on Selingan year-round but the nesting activity experiences a heavy peak between July and October. This coincides with the calmer months for the sea crossing. Hawksbill turtles concentrate their nesting on Pulau Gulisaan which is closed to the public. They also nest year-round with a peak from February to April. Hawksbills lay exceptionally large clutches that average 118 to 126 eggs per nest.

The sea state dictates the boat transfer from Sandakan. December and January bring the north-east monsoon which carries the highest chance of a cancelled crossing due to rough water.

Hatchery methods and debate

Selingan operates an ex-situ hatchery model. Conservationists manually excavate the eggs and relocate them to secure fenced enclosures. This intervention successfully neutralises the immediate threat from poachers and natural predators like monitor lizards and ghost crabs.

The biological literature issues strict warnings about moving sea turtle eggs. Within hours of being laid, the embryo attaches to the inner eggshell membrane. If an egg is rotated after this cellular adhesion occurs the embryonic membranes tear and the embryo dies. Rangers must relocate the eggs within hours and maintain the exact vertical orientation in which they fell.

The thermal dynamics of the nest introduce a deeper complexity. Sea turtles lack sex chromosomes and the gender of the hatchlings is dictated entirely by the sand temperature during incubation. The temperature that yields a balanced ratio of males to females is 29°C. Temperatures above this threshold produce females. Concentrating hundreds of nests in an unshaded hatchery can artificially raise sand temperatures through cumulative metabolic heating. Combined with global climate change, this creates a well-documented risk of extreme feminisation within highly managed populations.

When the hatchlings emerge, they must reach the ocean immediately to begin a swimming frenzy that escapes nearshore predators. They rely on visual cues and move toward the brightest horizon which under natural conditions is moonlight on the water. Artificial light from coastal development easily overwhelms these celestial cues and causes severe disorientation. Every minute a hatchling spends crawling incorrectly depletes the finite energy reserve from its yolk sac. This is why the Selingan rangers prohibit artificial lights on the nesting beach and ensure the hatchlings are released immediately to complete a natural crawl into the surf.

Beyond the beach, the Marine Research Foundation has championed the use of Turtle Excluder Devices in Sabah's commercial shrimp trawlers. These metal grids allow large megafauna to escape the trawl nets and address a severe bycatch crisis that historically drowned thousands of turtles a year offshore.

Air-conditioned chalets

Selingan Island provides air-conditioned chalets with en-suite bathrooms and 24-hour power. The meals served in the cafeteria are simple home-style dishes. It is a comfortable base for a remote conservation station and suits a family stay of 1 night. With no phone signal, the stay suits time away from calls at a working conservation station.

Selingan transfers and booking

The transfer to Selingan is a 1-hour speedboat ride departing around 8am from the Sabah Parks jetty on Jalan Buli Sim-Sim in Sandakan. The return boat leaves the island early the next morning.

All ticketing and accommodation are managed by a single concessionaire and the 50 overnight slots sell out rapidly. You should secure your dates through the team at least 3 to 6 months in advance. The package includes the return boat transfers, chalet accommodation, meals and the guided night turtle programme. Additional on-site costs include a tourism tax and a Sabah Parks conservation fee.

Families and first-time visitors

A night on Selingan suits families and first-time Borneo travellers who want to see conservation work through a ranger-led group programme. The terrain is flat and easily navigated.

If you are an advanced diver who prefers unmanaged encounters with wildlife in a natural state, you should focus your itinerary on Sabah's offshore reefs. Sipadan is a volcanic pinnacle rising 600 metres from the ocean floor where green and hawksbill turtles graze the walls and rest in coral alcoves on nearly every dive. Sabah Parks issues 254 Sipadan permits a day and has required Advanced Open Water certification since October 2022; snorkellers also need a permit. The island is closed every November and reopens on 1 December.

Divers wanting exceptional macro diving find turtles cruising the artificial reefs at Mabul and Kapalai. If you want a quieter high-end alternative to Selingan, you might consider Lankayan Island which operates its own sea turtle hatchery alongside exceptional diving and closes every January and February.

Selingan Island tickets

Tell the team your dates and the size of your party and they will confirm availability for the 50 nightly slots on Selingan. If you want to combine the hatchery with a diving itinerary, let them know your certification level and they will build the days around your priorities.

--- Sources referenced on this page: Sabah Parks; IUCN; Marine Research Foundation. Facts verified 2 September 2026.