I have dove – and thoroughly enjoyed – all three locations the OP was asking about, but I must say that Bikini was in a class by itself; at least it was when I dove it in 2000. When you added it all up – its location, its beauty, its history, the ships’ histories – I still consider Bikini to be the most “high voltage” diving that I have done. The whole trip just felt different from other dive trips I have taken. The saying at that time was that Bikini is like Truk on steroids, and I agree. BTW, I dove Palau and Chuuk/Truk (1.5 years/6 months respectively) before Bikini, and that order worked well for me.
Before I went I did a lot of reading about Bikini, the nuclear testing and the history of the ships. All of our dive group did. This knowledge added greatly to our experience. For anyone planning to dive Bikini I highly recommend you do the same.
When I dove Bikini the U.S. was still monitoring for radiation – growing and collecting plant and sea life samples……. There were no problems with background levels of radiation – whether being on the island or diving the wrecks. Lying in the sun that close to the equator was probably more of a threat. However, apparently there was still a problem with the soil; therefore, people were told not to consume anything being grown on the island - such as coconuts…..
The U.S. conducted a total of 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, and 23 of those were at Bikini. As part of “Operation Crossroads” in 1946, the first two tests were conducted and these were called Able” and “Baker.” It was these two tests that created the wreck diving. Able was detonated above the ships and Baker below. Baker really did a lot of damage. Twenty-one ships and small craft were sunk, but many were not sunk, including the Prinz Eugen. The Eugen ended up being a wreck in the Kwajalein Lagoon.
For a good history of Bikini and Operation Crossroads, watch
Radio Bikini. A while back I heard that Netflix had it. .
If you want to see what topside Bikini looked like in 2000, just follow this link to the ScubaBoard Photo Gallery. At that time the dive operation was land based. We were a group of six divers from Kwajalein and we had fun! The video we had made of our Bikini dives is too large to post here.
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