Scuba Diving Bikini Atoll
From Dreams to Reality
by Matt Mandziuk
Since Age 17 Bikini Atoll was always a place of interest to me, so much so, that it got me thinking about technical diving at such an early age.
The prospect of seeing an aircraft carrier and ships blowup up by nuclear weapons was mind blowing, as was this amazing trip.
Humble Beginnings
What started off as a dream started to become very much a reality after we explored Truk Lagoon in 2016. The ships were huge, our divers had a blast and soon we started chatting with them about how to do a trip that tops it.
I had always joked about the idea of diving Bikini Atoll, because I had never known of a dive charter company that was available to run trips out to that part of the world, especially after the businesses got shutdown and the island evacuated yet again, in around 2007.
Vacating Bikini Atoll is not a new thing, as the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands have been relocated many times since the 1946 atomic bomb tests located offshore of Bikini Island in their beautiful and scenic bay.
The USA did testing around Bikini Atoll from 1946-1958. During the 1960’s they began a cleanup effort, and some people came back, but by the 1970’s the area was evacuated again due to radiation levels.
The Marshall Islands were inhabited for over 3600 years, since the earliest findings of carbon dated artifacts dating back to 1000 BC and 1650BC and others between 400 AD and 1400.
In a more modern context, the first explorers sailed through the Marshall Islands, which are beautiful volcanic and coral formed islands located between Hawaii and the Philippines, as early as the 1500’s and throughout the late 1700’s, and by the 1850’s, Christianity came to convert the people into Christians, which most of the population identify themselves as today.
The main languages spoken by the local population is English and Marshallese.
The people of Bikini and the surrounding Marshall Islands rely on the farming of crops and livestock to sustain their population. Coconut, pandanus, breadfruit, and taro are the major food crops. Most food sources are shipped in, including fresh produce (vegetables and fruit). They also farm pigs and cattle.
The Marshall Islands receive funds on a regular basis from the USA, who leases some of their land, however, many of these islands are poor and rundown, so it’s a typical rich get richer scenario, as the wealth doesn’t seem to trickle down to the people.
It’s mind-blowing that a country can detonate nuclear weapons in another country and basically seize the area as their own, however, when the Marshall Islands people had little structure or financial stability, it makes it more a reality when you see it all for yourself.
Fast Forward
Over 70 years later, we finally get to explore Bikini Atoll for ourselves and she was as beautiful topside as underwater, with the fish life coming back, we saw an abundance of Tuna, juvenile reef sharks, turtles, octopus and corals of all types and colours.
The journey to get to Bikini Atoll is not easy, as the amount of travel required and equipment needed make packing light impossible.
For our 10 day boat adventure, we had to pack everything for our rebreathers and doubles/sidemount tanks including spares. The only thing we didn’t need to bring was CO2 absorbent, which they had plenty of.
All spare parts, tools, regulators, bcds, camera equipment, clothes, fins, masks, computers, etc., had to be well thought out because once you get there you are very limited in what you have access to.
Most of us were able to carry-on their rebreathers and all necessary main dive gear, while the camera bag and clothes and gear not detrimental to the trip were able to be put in checked luggage.
From Buffalo to Chicago to Honolulu we departed, spending a night in Hawaii and then taking on the next left of the flight to the Marshall Islands from there.
As we flew to Majuro, we started to get excited, then Kwajelein Atoll, a US military island, used for nuclear test support. Kwajelein was our landing spot, as we deplaned and were put into a literal cages for background checks and security purposes.
Each guest from the plane waited patiently, as they took our passports and disappeared, coming back intermittently to take 2-4 passengers at a time to the main ferry terminal, where we had to board a ferry to the island of Ebeye, an overpopulated island once used as a Japanese Seaplane harbour before the Pacific War and in the 1950’s the US made it into a LORAN until 1970 when it was disbanded.
Ebeye was home to our ship, the Pacific Master, a beautiful, spacious, seaworthy 99′ ship refitted for service in the Marshall Islands.
Ebeye is a very populated island with over 15000 people living on 80 acres, with over half the population being under the age of 18 years old.
Many of these islands use the ocean as their garbage dumps, as you see flip-flops and running shoe soles often washing up on the beaches, we saw that here as well as Bikini.
There were No Fishing for consumption signs warning of high arsenic content in the local fish. So sad.
The rest of this blog post got wiped out migrating the website over, but lucky for you, our own Grace Marquez had written a great blog about the trip, so I’m linking her blog: CLICK HERE