Unless someone manages to make the internal flights more reliable, looks like the wrecks of Bikini Atoll are going to be off the must-dive list...
What a shame... We had an article on them just last year and they did look just as awesome as the hype.
Mark
Bikini closes down
One of the world's most famous wreck-diving destinations has ceased trading, its owners blaming fuel costs and an unreliable aircraft service.
Bikini Atoll is now without any form of diving operation, after its only centre closed down in May.
Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands is famous for its array of shipwrecks sunk during the famous atomic tests of the 1950s. Among them is the USS Saratoga, one of the few diveable aircraft carrier shipwrecks.
For 13 years, the atoll has sustained an elite dive business, Bikini Atoll Divers, which was able to support extended range diving in the deep lagoon, where several wrecks lie in the 50m range. However trips to the atoll have become a costly lottery, as Air Marshall Islands' service has become increasingly expensive and unreliable.
The past seven months has seen only one set of visitors making to Bikini, and there have been reports of groups being transported back to the capital island of Majuro by a coastguard boat - a three-day journey. For now, Bikini will be available only to independent adventurers and the super rich, such as Microsoft's Paul Allen, who visited on his mega-yacht Octopus last February.
In an email to his clients, Bikini Atoll Divers spokesman Jack Niedenthal attributed the decision to cease operations to what he called 'the situation with the airline', coupled with rising fuel charges. The Marshall Islands government is expected to make a decision on Bikini's future as a diving destination at a meeting to be held next month. But with the nation's finances suffering, Bikini is unlikely to reopen in the near future.
What a shame... We had an article on them just last year and they did look just as awesome as the hype.
Mark
Bikini closes down
One of the world's most famous wreck-diving destinations has ceased trading, its owners blaming fuel costs and an unreliable aircraft service.
Bikini Atoll is now without any form of diving operation, after its only centre closed down in May.
Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands is famous for its array of shipwrecks sunk during the famous atomic tests of the 1950s. Among them is the USS Saratoga, one of the few diveable aircraft carrier shipwrecks.
For 13 years, the atoll has sustained an elite dive business, Bikini Atoll Divers, which was able to support extended range diving in the deep lagoon, where several wrecks lie in the 50m range. However trips to the atoll have become a costly lottery, as Air Marshall Islands' service has become increasingly expensive and unreliable.
The past seven months has seen only one set of visitors making to Bikini, and there have been reports of groups being transported back to the capital island of Majuro by a coastguard boat - a three-day journey. For now, Bikini will be available only to independent adventurers and the super rich, such as Microsoft's Paul Allen, who visited on his mega-yacht Octopus last February.
In an email to his clients, Bikini Atoll Divers spokesman Jack Niedenthal attributed the decision to cease operations to what he called 'the situation with the airline', coupled with rising fuel charges. The Marshall Islands government is expected to make a decision on Bikini's future as a diving destination at a meeting to be held next month. But with the nation's finances suffering, Bikini is unlikely to reopen in the near future.
