The first Dutch expedition to the Bikini Atoll

We literally touched the face of history diving these amazing nuclear wrecks. The history of these amazing wrecks in the Bikini lagoon is great and contains the most important collection of WW2 shipwrecks in the world. In fact the first and longtime only diveable aircraft carrier lies on the bottom of the Bikini lagoon. During our week at Bikini we did 12 dives on 7 of these wrecks. In fact there are even more wrecks that are mentioned bellow. The U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga (the only divable carrier in the world) and the HIJMS Nagato, flagship of the Japanese Navy, are the highlights of this site.

Wreck diving at Bikini Atoll consists of a relatively standard series of decompression dives with maximum depths in the region of 47-57 metres. During our week at Bikini we did 12 decompression dives and did perform two decompression dives a day using air as bottomgas in our twin 12 litres and used surface supplied nitrox with 79% oxygen as decompression gas. We did these decompression dives using our Suunto D6 multigas dive computers which helped us doing these dives without any problems. In fact we are very pleased with our Suunto D6 dive computers, because they were easy to use, gave good decompression information and are really an eye catcher!

Due to aircraft problems with {Air} Marshall Islands (AMI) airliner company, there were no divers for the last 9 months before the Dutch Expedition team arrived at Bikini. After 13 great-though-challenging years as one of the premier wreck diving tourism sites in the Pacific, Bikini Atoll will be closed to tourists as of June 11, 2008 (the last week of customers will be June 4-11).

They made this decision due to the situation of their local airliner, {Air} Marshalls, and also because of the rapid rise in the world price of fuel, which has made all of their operating expenses just skyrocket beyond their means.

In August of this year the local government, during the annual budget meeting, will decide whether or not they can afford to open Bikini Atoll in 2009. At this point in time, given these challenges their trust fund is facing big deficits because of the recent poor performance of the US stock markets and a recession-bound US economy, the prospect of opening next year appears very doubtful. This news has been very hard on the Bikinian leaders and their people as all of the proceeds from the operation have gone toward purchasing food for their communities on Kili Island, Ejit Island and Majuro Atoll.

Today the Bikini Atoll stands known as one of the most beautiful dive destinations on earth. The Technical Explorers Team went as one of the very first Dutch divers to this atoll to make a documentary, write about it in diving magazines and do presentations afterwards as a guest speaker for companies to tell the Bikinian story and to help promoting tourism. Besides this great paradise there's also a dark side of its history that has cost lots of lives of the original people living there. But most importantly this dive destination should be available for everybody and should stay open in the future. We were very happy actually to dive these amazing wrecks!!!

Text and images by Joost-Jan Waanders
www.technicalexplorers.com
http://bikini2008.technicalexplorers.com