"NOWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD"

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. The sunken fleet includes battleships, destroyers, submarines, cruisers, attack transports and the only aircraft carrier wreck accessible to divers, the USS SARATOGA. 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.

What you will see!

USS SARATOGA

The world's only diveable aircraft carrier. At 888 feet long, it may be the largest wreck you will ever dive on! She is sitting upright at a bottom depth of 180 feet. Her flight deck is accessible at 95 feet, with the superstructure rising as shallow as 40 feet. Situated at 130 feet is the hanger deck, where you still can see the Helldiver airplanes with intact instrument gauges, even the "autopilot" switch is readable. Further back on the aft hangar, you will witness the Saratoga's weapons of destruction. You will see, but not touch, the huge aerial torpedoes and air to ground rockets that were placed there for the tests. The deck of the wreck is filled with AA gun directors accompanied by schools of dogtooth tuna, barracudas and sharks that will offer great photo opportunities. The USS Saratoga's bow is so big that its sight will take your breath away! Daniel Lenihan, the chief of the National Park Service Submerged Cultural Resources Unit exclaims, "Anybody whose heart is not pumping as they swim down onto the deck of the USS SARATOGA, just is not alive!"

 

HIJMS NAGATO

Bikini's second largest wreck and perhaps, the most historically significant, the Nagato was the flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto stood at her bridge the very moment the war in the Pacific became reality when the code words "Tora, Tora, Tora" echoed on their radios launching the attack. The Nagato lays capsized at 170 feet bottom depth. Her bridge is accessible at 150 feet, and her incredible 16 inch guns will blow you away. Sport Diver magazine's editor, Pierce Hoover, described the amazing guns as, "...so big they almost seemed unreal as they emerged from the gloom of the capsized stem." Nagato's massive screws and rudders will offer you more dramatic photo opportunities.

USS ARKANSAS

The "Arkie" was the Navy's oldest battleship during the tests. She was action in both theaters of World War II. From the "D-Day" at Normandy in the Atlantic to the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the Pacific, she was one of the "unsinkables" until the Baker test finally brought her to her grave. She sits capsized at 170 feet. Her intact AA and 12 inch guns are just some of the highlights of a dive you won't forget.

AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!
There are two submarines with one in a condition so pristine that it led one of our earlier customers to say, "It looks like somebody just put this sub on the bottom for us to play with!" Along with the subs, there are two destroyers filled with torpedo tubes, AA guns and depth charges, two attack transports, and a Japanese cruiser. Bikini is as close as you can get to an "underwater amusement park for wreck divers."

A nuclear test site? How about the radiation?
W. L. Robison, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, concluded after over 20 years of testing in Bikini, that, "The potential dose [of radiation] 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.

Your next step into truly advanced diving
The diving environment at Bikini is certainly unique and as such requires special procedures: 

Contrary 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. The maximum depth attained on any of our dives is 175 feet (you will need a shovel to get deeper than that!). We 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 week of diving. You don't need to be a "Super Tech Diver" to do dive Bikini but we require that you have an absolute minimum of 50 dives and be comfortable in and under the water. Buoyancy and ascent rate skills are an absolute necessity. 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. For those that come here without formal training we offer IANTD courses on island--Advanced Nitrox, Technical Diver and EANx Wreck Diver (Wreck Penetration) as well as a Nitrox Blender course. Advanced Open Water divers without any previous knowledge of technical diving or decompression have dove with us with success and without any problem.

BEFORE YOU GET TO BIKINI
You must meet the following requirements before your arrival at Bikini: