The soil still contains significant levels of cesium 137, meaning that visitors cannot eat any produce grown on the island - especially the coconuts. The only regular visitors to the islands are scientists and the four to six caretakers who live nearby. Today, the island has no residents and is under military control. The atoll featured rich fishing reefs that supported 40 local families. From there, it’s 24-plus hours by sea to Bikini.īefore the nuclear tests, the 23 islands spanning 34 square miles were a paradise surrounding a deep lagoon. Passengers are escorted to the ferry port and taken to Ebye to pick up the charter. Passengers are only allowed off the plane if their trip is pre-arranged. military base), also in the Marshall Islands.
The best way to get to Bikini Atoll is via Kwajelein (a U.S. Flights to Bikini stopped in 2008 when Air Marshall Islands went out of business, leaving the crushed-coral runway to fall into disrepair. It’s one of the most remote places on Earth, and thus a destination that most divers can’t experience. Part of the Marshall Islands, Bikini Atoll is in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. The islands have made a slow but steady recovery, however, and it’s now possible to scuba dive at Bikini Atoll. Bikini Atoll was opened for diving in 1996 allowing divers to experience some of the most historic and amazing wreck diving in the world.Bikini Atoll, in the North Pacific Ocean and part of the Marshall Islands, is famous for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests, which took place between 19. Around the same time French fashion designer Louis Reard was looking for a name for his new, controversial, tiny swimsuit design and the “Bikini” was launched.īikini Lagoon became the final resting place for some of the most significant warships in history. The site chosen for the explosive tests was Bikini Atoll. If basic skills are still a problem for you-such as clearing a flooded mask or recovering a regulator that has fallen out of your mouth-you should reconsider diving on Bikini until you have more experience.įor those that come here without formal training, dive centers offer IANTD courses on island-Advanced Nitrox, Technical Diver and EANx Wreck Diver (Wreck Penetration) as well as a Nitrox Blender course.ĭuring 1946, following the end of WW2, the USA gathered together a “mock” naval fleet in order to test the effects of atomic bombs on the large fleet. Buoyancy and ascent rate skills are an absolute necessity. You don't need to be a "Super Tech Diver" to do dive Bikini but it's usually required that the diver has an absolute minimum of 50 dives and be comfortable in and under the water. Dive centers are set up to deal with the risks of staged decompression diving in a way that divers with no previous experience are allowed to gain some new skills and at the same time have an incredible experience in diving. The maximum depth attained on any of our dives is 175 feet (you will need a shovel to get deeper than that!).
The diving environment at Bikini is certainly unique and as such requires special procedures:Ĭontrary to what most people believe, Bikini is actually a very benign environment for deep diving as we have a clear, warm water lagoon with no discernible current. Robison, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, concluded after over 20 years of testing in Bikini, that, "The potential dose to a person swimming in the Bikini Lagoon around or through the sunken ships is so low.that it can be considered essentially zero." The chances are you are receiving more radiation from background sources at your hometown right now than if you were to be at Bikini. At Bikini, you will witness firsthand the effects of a nuclear explosion on warships, as these are the only ships in the world ever sunk by an atomic bomb.Ī nuclear test site? How about the radiation? W. The sunken fleet includes battleships, destroyers, submarines, cruisers, attack transports and the only aircraft carrier wreck accessible to divers, the USS SARATOGA.
BIKINI ATOLL DIVE CODE
Bikini Atoll is the site of one of the most exclusive diving experiences in the world! Bikini was once the site of the postwar nuclear tests code named "Operation Crossroads" and its lagoon now offers a collection of wrecks with major historical significance.
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