Barnum’s Wall
Body of Water:
Philippine Sea
Difficulty: Novice
GPS Coordinates
Lat: 7.088611
Lon: 134.256111
This lively and beautiful wall is often overshadowed by Turtle Cove, its closest neighbor. It is close to German Channel and offers good protection in foul weather.
Even though this reef is sometimes wild and resembles a sea-life circus, it is not named after the famous Barnum and Bailey Circus. During WWII a young US Navy Lieutenant named Barnum was in charge of keeping Japanese boats from reaching the inner lagoons of Palau. Huge floating steel spheres connected by heavy chain was strung from Barnum's Wall across to Ngemelis Reef effectively blocking the area approaching German Channel. In 1986 Admiral Barnum returned to Palau and subsequently revealed the story behind the reef's name. Some of those steel spheres can still be found along the reef at Big Drop Off.
Reef
This sloping reef runs northeast to southwest parallel to Ngercheu Island. The reef shares a corner and a shallow plateau with Turtle Cove. The northeast section of the reef starts near the surface, moderately slopes down to 70 to 120 feet (23 to 40 meters) and then changes its formation to a rough sandy run off. Canyons and caverns cut through from the top of the reef. Before the reef reaches the corner it changes to a sheer wall. The reef wall drops down to 450 to 900 feet (150 to 300 meters). The plateau at the corner is 10 to 30 feet (3 to 10 meters) deep; it is decorated with small coral heads and rock canyons.
Marine Life
Barnum's wall offers a large variety of colorful soft and hard corals. During descent look for White Tip Shark and Rays sleeping on the reef. The reef drop off and the corner are covered with carpets of yellow and green tubastrea corals. Large clouds of Pyramid Butterflyfish and Red tooth Triggerfish float in the current along the edges of the reef. When the conditions are right (strong incoming current and good visibility) schools of Gray Reef sharks, Barracudas, Snappers, Jacks, Wahoo and other predatory fish will be dancing all around you. If the current is not running, the top of the reef is a great place to find Scorpion Leaf Fish and other macro critters hiding among the corals.