Seafan Alley

Seafan Alley on North Atoll

This guide concerns Seafan Alley in Tubbataha, Philippines. Oceana Maria lists it among North Atoll sites, and Bluewater describes gorgonian fans with possible pygmy seahorse subjects. It should not be confused with similarly named sites elsewhere in the Pacific.

What the named sources describe

Dive The World describes a wall with extensive sea fans. That supports a wall-and-coral description, but does not establish exact whole-site depths, current strength or visibility for your visit. Pygmy seahorses are a reported possibility, not a guaranteed photographic subject.

Planning a careful visit

Ask the liveaboard team how the day's conditions affect the wall route and opportunities to stop for photographs. The park's published 2025 rules require a two-metre distance when interacting with marine wildlife and prohibit touching or chasing animals. A macro photograph is not a reason to handle wildlife.

This partial guide keeps locality and reported habitat clear while leaving unverified conditions unresolved. Confirm the vessel's experience requirements, permitted activities and current itinerary; inclusion on a dive-site list does not guarantee that a trip will stop here.

The park's description of the wall

The Tubbataha Management Office has surveyed a Seafan Alley station in the northern part of North Atoll since 2018; its 2019 transect was "at first buoy", and the June 2024 station is described as a "very steep dropoff, 90' to 10', high coral cover" (Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Report 2024, station appendix). The site was surveyed again in June 2025, and TMO's 2025 shark survey ran two transects here of about 698 and 1,015 metres. The 90-to-10-foot note describes a survey profile, not a site limit.

Dated firsthand dives

Lakwatsero's log of 7 May 2011 describes "a beautiful wall full of sea fans of varying sizes, shapes and colors", two dives to 23.2 and 16.4 metres, a resting turtle on the final stretch, and on the second dive a school of jacks circling a juvenile whitetip shark; that second dive was a substitute after strong current ruled out another site. cbartazo.com's log of May 2011 records two dives to 23.4 and 17.2 metres with two turtles, then jacks and sharks. The Philippine Aggressor II log of 30 May 2026 records octopuses in crevices, snappers, turtles and a silvertip shark along the reef edge; its 21 March 2026 log calls it a more relaxed dive with batfish, a marble ray on the sand, surgeonfish and reef sharks, and the Philippine Aggressor log of the same date adds sailfin snappers, bumphead parrotfish, whitetip, blacktip and grey reef sharks and two marble rays. Logged depths are those divers' profiles.

Operator wording

Palau Sport says clear visibility lets divers look down the wall at hundreds of large sea fans that have grown deep on it; Bluewater and Dive The World both mention pygmy seahorses in the fans. The spellings Seafan Alley and Sea Fan Alley refer to the same North Atoll site.