Ogasawara Islands · Japan · Artificial reef · Reef
Barachin Wreck
A broken wartime hull at 12 m that the reef fish have taken over
Area photo: TANAKA Juuyoh · CC BY 2.0
Barachin is a wartime wreck in Takinoura Bay, broken apart on the bottom at about 12 metres and now working as a fishing reef for schooling fish. Alongside it a reef section reaches roughly 20 metres and holds snappers, groupers and scorpionfish. Easy access from Chichijima and little to no current make it a major point in the Ogasawara Islands that plenty of divers get to.
Also known as Barachin.
Where it is and how deep
27.1209° N, 142.1987° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
Access from Chichijima is easy, which is a large part of why so many divers dive this point. You drop into Takinoura Bay onto the wreck itself: a hull broken apart on the bottom at about 12 metres, not an intact ship you would penetrate. Fish treat the wreckage as a fishing reef, holding in schools over the structure, with large snappers and groupers among them.
From the wreck the dive carries on onto the reef alongside, which bottoms out around 20 metres. Scorpionfish are there in numbers, ribbonfish and schooling fish work the reef, and cleaning shrimp, red-headed shrimp among them, are worth slowing down for, so this half of the dive rewards searching rather than covering distance. With little to no current the profile is yours to plan: take the reef at its deepest early and leave the shallower wreckage for the end.
Marine life and season
- Groupers
- Reef fish swarms
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair |
Season follows Ogasawara Islands: Calmest seas run April-October; humpback whales pass through December-April but winter crossings are rougher.
Dive videos
Dive at Barachin of Anijima, Ogasawara Island on November 7, 2021 · 若林章正 on YouTube
Questions divers ask
What ship is the Barachin wreck?+
The dive-site listing calls Barachin a battleship that sank during the Second World War, but it gives no dimensions and no date, and no independent source corroborates the identity. What is on the bottom today is hull structure broken apart at about 12 metres rather than an identifiable ship.
How deep is Barachin?+
The wreckage lies at about 12 metres and the reef beside it goes to roughly 20 metres, so a normal dive here stays well inside recreational limits.
Is Barachin suitable for beginners?+
Yes. The site is described as having little to no current, and both the wreckage at 12 metres and the reef at 20 metres sit within a straightforward recreational profile. Easy access from Chichijima is part of why so many divers get to dive it.
Sources
- Barachin (Wreck) — Scubago (SSI MyDiveGuide)
Similar dives elsewhere
Rockfish, greenling and giant anemones packed onto revetment boulders
Coral-encrusted pillars off a beach opened in 2017
Fish schooling in the shade under a working salt pier
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Old anchors and fish traps grown over with sponges and corals