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Scuba Diving in Bikini Atoll
A remote northern atoll of the Marshall Islands, site of the 1946 Operation Crossroads nuclear tests, whose lagoon holds a sunken ghost fleet of warships including the only diveable aircraft carrier in the world. A UNESCO World Heritage site reached only by liveaboard.
Why here
Bikini Atoll is the greatest deep-wreck dive on the planet and a bucket-list pilgrimage for technical divers. In 1946 the US Navy assembled a fleet of captured and surplus warships here for Operation Crossroads, two atomic tests that sank them where they floated. The lagoon now holds the USS Saratoga, the only diveable aircraft carrier in the world, her 270 metre flight deck sitting upright in the blue, alongside the Japanese flagship battleship Nagato that led the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleship USS Arkansas and the submarine USS Apogon. Visibility runs 40 to 60 metres over these steel giants, but the diving is serious: average depths around 50 metres and long decompression put Bikini firmly in the technical realm. Add the human weight of the place, an atoll whose people were moved off for the tests and have never fully returned, and this is diving as history, reached only by a small liveaboard on a long ocean crossing.
Best months
This is a technical wreck-diving destination, not a recreational one. Average dive depths are around 50 metres with bottom times over 100 minutes and long decompression, so operators require a technical certification such as TDI Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures or PADI Tec 50, plus logged deep experience. Water is warm and clear with 40 to 60 metre visibility. The season runs May to October, when the liveaboard is stationed at Bikini before moving to Truk Lagoon for the rest of the year.
Getting there & around
Bikini is reached only by liveaboard on multi-night itineraries of roughly 10 to 13 nights that sail from the Marshall Islands, so the trip is booked as a single expedition well ahead. You fly into the Marshalls (Majuro or Kwajalein) to join the vessel. Guests must hold and prove technical certification and carry appropriate deep and decompression gear; some equipment and gas fills are arranged with the operator in advance. There is no walk-up diving and no recreational option at Bikini.
Skill levels: advanced
Schools & guides (1)
Master Liveaboards
OutfitterMaster Liveaboards is the sole dive operator running expeditions to Bikini Atoll, aboard the M/Y Pacific Master, a 30 metre steel vessel with 12 air-conditioned cabins for up to 16 technical divers. Its Bikini itineraries of 10 to 13 nights dive the nuclear ghost fleet, including the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, the battleship Nagato, the USS Arkansas and the submarine USS Apogon, with a deco-bar and technical support on board. The vessel works Bikini from May to October, then Truk Lagoon.