page_title: Lankayan Island
hierarchical_section_title: Lankayan Island
caption_attribution_description: English: Lankayan Island, Sabah state (Borneo), Malaysia
context_page_description: Lankayan Island is a small tropical coral resort island in Beluran, Sabah, Malaysia in the Sulu Sea.
  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 blacktip sharks, giant clams, claw anemone fishes, decorator and spider crabs, coral shrimps, nudibranchs, prawn gobies, seahorses, ghost pipefish, flying gurnards, parrotfishes, rays and guitarfish. The indigenous plants include casuarina trees and pandan screwpine.
  Green and hawksbill sea turtles make this island a key nesting spot in the Sulu Sea. The turtles are banded by the local marine preserve staff, the eggs are retrieved and counted, and then reburied in a fenced off nursery area to prevent poaching and predation, and to assist in documenting turtle productivity. After hatching, the live birth count is recorded and then the young turtles are safely released to sea.
context_section_description: Lankayan Island (Malay: Pulau Lankayan) is a small tropical coral resort island in Beluran, Sabah, Malaysia in the Sulu Sea.
  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 blacktip sharks, giant clams, claw anemone fishes, decorator and spider crabs, coral shrimps, nudibranchs, prawn gobies, seahorses, ghost pipefish, flying gurnards, parrotfishes, rays and guitarfish. The indigenous plants include casuarina trees and pandan screwpine.
  Green and hawksbill sea turtles make this island a key nesting spot in the Sulu Sea.  The turtles are banded by the local marine preserve staff, the eggs are retrieved and counted, and then reburied in a fenced off nursery area to prevent poaching and predation, and to assist in documenting turtle productivity.  After hatching, the live 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.
caption: Lankayan Island from just off shore
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-H2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:06:20 17:18:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-H2", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2008:06:20 17:18:30", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2952", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8812", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:06:20 17:18:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:06:20 17:18:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "62/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2112", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2746", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}