Jill Heinerth returned from her latest dive expedition from Truk Lagoon and is sharing this video, a must checklist before any diver hits the water.
This CCR splash checklist is a last minute test that EVERYONE must complete before any dive, by a professional member of staff who can spot errors before jumping into the water.
Truk Lagoon is a protected central Pacific sea area, and is part of Chuuk State within Micronesia’s Federated States. Around 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) north-east of New Guinea and you need more than a day’s travel from Canada to get there.
Truk Lagoon was the principal base of the Empire of Japan in the South Pacific Theater during World War II. Truk was a heavily fortified base for Japanese operations in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands against Allied forces, acting as the main anchorage for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).
Truk’s capability as a naval base was damaged by a naval air attack in 1944. The Japanese had withdrawn their larger warships (heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers) to Palau, forewarned by intelligence a week before the US invasion. Upon capture of the Marshall Islands by the American forces, they used them as a base from which to launch an early morning attack against Truk Lagoon on 17 February 1944. The attacks largely ended Truk as a major threat to Allied operations in the central Pacific and the results of the attack made Truk lagoon “the world’s largest ship graveyard”.
The famous French explorer Jacques Cousteau filmed an expedition at the wreck site called “Lagoon of Lost Ships” in 1969, which attracted newfound interest for divers to visit Truk. Cousteau’s film showed him and his team not only as they discovered ships, but also as holding bodies in those ships. This sparked a Japanese recovery effort, that saw them retrieve several bodies from the wreckage’s (numbers are unknown) and give them a proper burial.
Truk Lagoon has since developed into a popular site with divers and researchers. Explorers from all over the world benefit from the rareness of seeing so many intact ships in such close proximity. In reality, one can see some ships sitting 50 feet deep in the ocean from above the water.
Truk Lagoon is a must-see for divers who want to see plenty of shipwrecks from WWII, and can accommodate Canada’s long journey to this destination.
Thanks to Jill Heinerth for her safety video @ Truk Lagoon
