Is Malaysia risking its world-class coral reefs for offshore oil?

Every booking inquiry that lands in dive operator Richard Swann’s inbox these days carries the same undertow of anxiety. Before his clients commit to a dive trip off Kota Kinabalu, they want reassurance: are Sabah’s reefs still worth the journey? It is a question that would have seemed strange a generation ago, when the waters off Malaysian Borneo were simply assumed to be among the finest on Eart