Tubbataha Reefs, the area around Wall Street

Tubbataha Reefs · Philippines · Wall · Reef

Wall Street

A steep face to 60 m over a 3-5 m coral garden

Area photo: q.phia · CC BY 2.0

Wall Street is a stretch of Tubbataha reef wall that picks up south of Malayan Wreck and drops to between 50 and 60 metres. The reef top above it sits at 3 to 5 metres and carries a coral garden shallow enough to begin and end a dive on, so the dive is a pass along the face with coral on one shoulder and open water on the other.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Wall Street: typical dive 3–5 m (10–15 ft), deepest point 60 m (197 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit3 m5 m60 m maxtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 70 m (230 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

8.8455° N, 119.8796° EPublished position for this site.

The dive

The wall here continues the one that starts at Malayan Wreck, further south along the same rim, so this is a tender drop onto the reef edge rather than anything you can swim to. The reef top runs at 3 to 5 metres and is a coral garden in its own right; groups use it to settle before dropping over the lip, and come back to it at the end while the boat works its way round.

Over the edge the face falls away to 50 to 60 metres, past anything recreational, so the dive becomes a matter of picking a level on the wall and holding it. Like the rest of the park it is dived with the coral on one shoulder and the blue on the other, and it finishes either back on the shallow reef top or hanging in open water with an SMB up for the tender.

Marine life and season

The sources we used don't single out particular species here.

Month-by-month season rating for Wall Street
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Off-seasonOff-seasonFairPrimePrimeGoodOff-seasonOff-seasonOff-seasonOff-seasonOff-seasonOff-season

Season follows Tubbataha Reefs: Park diving is permitted only mid-March through mid-June; closed the rest of the year for monsoon safety and reef recovery.

Know before you go

  • The face drops to 50-60 m with no bottom inside recreational range: choose a depth as you go over the lip and watch your gauges, because a sheer wall gives you little visual reference to hold it.

Questions divers ask

How deep is Wall Street in Tubbataha?+

The coral garden on the reef top is at 3 to 5 metres and the wall below it drops to between 50 and 60 metres, past recreational depth, so the dive is spent on the face at a level you pick. Access is by liveaboard only, as everywhere in the park.

Sources

  1. Wall Street - Philippines, Mimaropa — Scubago / SSI MyDiveGuide

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