Coverage / Micronesia
Micronesia
Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia, four island states spread across the western Pacific: Chuuk, whose Truk Lagoon holds the greatest concentration of WWII shipwrecks in the world; Yap, with its year-round manta rays and giant stone money; Pohnpei, home to the megalithic ruined city of Nan Madol; and Kosrae. A diver's country of warm water, walls and living reef.
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Early coverage
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Scuba Diving
- Chuuk LagoonJan Feb Mar Apr DecChuuk Lagoon, still known to divers as Truk, is the greatest wreck-diving destination on earth. It was the Imperial Japanese Navy's main forward anchorage in the Pacific, and over two days in February 1944 the US carrier raid Operation Hailstone sank the fleet at its moorings. More than fifty ships and scores of aircraft went down in a sheltered lagoon, and they are still here, upright and intact in warm, clear water. You dive holds full of tanks, trucks, aircraft, sake bottles and gas masks on the Fujikawa Maru, the Nippo Maru and the San Francisco Maru, swim the coral-crusted superstructure of the Shinkoku Maru, and drop onto engines and bridges wrapped in soft coral and reef fish. Depths range from shallow, light-filled decks that Open Water divers can enjoy to deep penetration dives for technical teams. It is a sunken time capsule and a war grave at once, guided by Chuukese crews whose families have kept its stories since the raid.
- PohnpeiJan Feb Mar Apr Nov DecPohnpei offers some of the least-crowded diving in Micronesia, wrapped around one of the wettest, greenest islands in the Pacific. A wide barrier reef encircles the island with dozens of passes, and inside and outside them you find sheer coral walls, deep channels and colourful gardens rather than the wreck history of Chuuk to the west. Reef sharks patrol the passes, big schools of trevally and barracuda stack up in the current, and Pohnpei has its own resident manta cleaning station where the rays come in to be groomed. Because almost no one dives here, the reef is healthy and the boats are quiet. Pohnpei also pairs diving with rare land adventures: the surf breaks that made the island a cult name, waterfalls in the jungle interior, and Nan Madol, the vast basalt ruined city offshore. It is a diver's island for people who want reef, solitude and a genuine sense of the frontier.
- YapJan Feb Mar Apr DecYap built its reputation on manta rays. In the channels that cut through the island's reef, notably the Mi'l Channel and Goofnuw Channel, resident reef manta rays queue at coral cleaning stations while small fish pick them clean, and divers kneel on the sand and watch them soar overhead at arm's length. Yap runs mantas year-round, and in the December to April mating season the channels fill with courtship trains of several animals at once, one of the most reliable manta encounters on the planet. The state protected these waters as a manta sanctuary back in 2008, among the first anywhere. Beyond the mantas, Yap offers walls, grey reef and grey nurse sharks, and mandarinfish that emerge at dusk, all on reef so remote it sees a fraction of the divers of better-known destinations. Above water, a living culture of stone money villages and thatched meeting houses makes surface intervals as memorable as the dives.
Best months at a glance
| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | |
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| Sea Kayaking |