East Coast Wall

Pemba's exposed eastern coastline takes the full force of Indian Ocean swells and in return hosts some of the archipelago's most dramatic vertical walls, dropping from the reef flat at 8 m to beyond 800 m into the Pemba Channel. The upper wall to 30 m is plastered in golden gorgonians and black coral trees that grow laterally in the current, each colony hosting its own community of pygmy hawkfish, longnose hawkfish, and clingfish. Schooling barracuda — sometimes in aggregations of several hundred — spiral in midwater just off the wall edge, and pelagics including dog-tooth tuna and wahoo hunt beneath the school. The current can be significant on incoming tide so this site is reserved for experienced divers who can hold their depth at the wall face without being swept into blue water.