Tubbataha, Sipadan and Raja Ampat: permits, caps and fee cards.

Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (Philippines)

The law

Tubbataha is governed by Republic Act No. 10067, the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park Act. The Act defines the park, made up of the Tubbataha Reefs and Jessie Beazley Reef in Palawan, together with a buffer zone around it. It creates the Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board (TPAMB) as the park's policy-making body. The Asian Development Bank's legal database lists the Act with the date 27 July 2009, without saying whether that is the date it was enacted.

What the Act prohibits

According to the database summary, RA 10067:

• makes the park off-limits to navigation;
• bars anchoring and the dumping of waste; and
• makes it unlawful to bioprospect, to introduce exotic species, or to catch, kill or fish any resource in the park.

Dive liveaboards nevertheless visit Tubbataha under permits from the management board. Our research did not read the parts of the Act that reconcile visits with the navigation ban, so we cannot say how it does so.

Fees and season

A park visitor fee exists. The sources that quote it give different amounts, and no amount is given here. Travel sources describe a limited diving season, but we found no statement of a season from the management board or the park's management office, so none is given here. Older park rules from 2004 appear in legal digests, but they may have been replaced and we could not confirm them, so they are not described.

Sipadan Island Park (Sabah, Malaysia)

Daily permits

We found no page from Sabah Parks, the managing body. This section relies on the Sabah Tourism Board's Sipadan page (last reviewed 5 May 2025), a 2026 dive guide and a resort notice. The Sabah Tourism Board says permits can be obtained only through licensed tour operators registered with Sabah Parks, that each diver is allowed only a one-day visit, and that the island no longer has any accommodation. The dive guide describes the same system: Sabah Parks runs a daily permit system for entering and diving at Sipadan, permits go only to licensed operators, who assign them to their guests, independent diving is not allowed, and no one may stay overnight on the island. The guide says the accommodation was removed in 2005.

How many permits

The sources disagree on the daily cap:

• the Sabah Tourism Board gives a daily quota of 252 permits;
• a resort notice effective from 1 January 2026 gives a total of 252 people on the island per day;
• a 2026 dive guide gives 176 divers per day.

We found no figure from Sabah Parks itself.

Dives per day

The sources also disagree on how many dives a visit allows. The dive guide says divers may make three dives a day from May 2026, up from two under restrictions introduced in 2022. The Sabah Tourism Board's page, last reviewed in May 2025, before that reported change, gives a maximum of two dives in the day. Neither could be confirmed with Sabah Parks.

Certification

The Sabah Tourism Board's page (last reviewed May 2025) says divers must hold at least Advanced Open Water certification to be eligible. The dive guide says the permit sets no formal certification level, but that Turtle Cavern should be entered only by divers with cavern or cave training. Neither is a statement by Sabah Parks. For what the agencies say about overhead environments, see environmental hazards.

Raja Ampat (West Papua, Indonesia)

The Raja Ampat marine park's own website no longer resolves, and its rules page returned an error during our research. Everything in this section comes from search summaries of that site and of other sources, and we could not confirm it on a working official page.

The fee card

According to those summaries, the marine park authority requires every visitor to buy an environmental services fee card, known locally as the kartu TLPJL, before entering a marine protected area. Entering without one is described as a breach of the regulations that can lead to expulsion. The card is described as issued in Waisai, valid for 12 months, and not required for children under 12.

The summaries say the fee rests on a regulation of the West Papua governor and has been renamed as a tariff supporting environmental services, payable by every visitor. Sources say divers must carry the tag or card on dive boats, which face spot checks. Liveaboards are described as needing a separate vessel permit from the one-stop services office in Waisai.

The fee has changed

The official site, as summarised, and older sources give different amounts for foreign and Indonesian visitors, which shows the fee has changed over time. No amount is given here; check the current fee with the authority.

Related reading

For how permits, caps and fees at these reefs compare with other parks, see how dive sites are protected.