North Atoll Wall

The northern face of Tubbataha's North Atoll drops sheer from 5 m to beyond 60 m in a near-vertical wall draped in sea fans, black coral, and soft corals. Strong upwellings push nutrient-rich water up the wall, attracting dense schools of jacks and fusiliers that in turn draw scalloped hammerheads — sometimes in groups of a dozen — patrolling just off the drop-off. Dogtooth tuna and rainbow runners sweep past in the blue, while grey reef sharks hold position in the current below the wall's edge.