Tokashiku Bay Wall

On the eastern side of Tokashiki Island, facing the open Pacific, Tokashiku Bay is flanked by a reef wall that drops sharply from 8 metres at the crest to beyond 40 metres at the base, its face draped with large sea fans, wire corals, and gorgonians that filter nutrients from the upwelling Kuroshio Current. The wall is renowned for the density of sea turtles that use it as a highway between feeding areas and open-water resting sites, with as many as a dozen individuals visible on a single dive. Hawksbill turtles pick sponges from the wall face while green turtles sweep through the water column, and both species are frequently intercepted mid-water at depths of 15 to 25 metres. The deeper sections of the wall shelter lionfish, scorpionfish, and moray eels in the crevices between large coral heads.