Nekton

Mark Stegge of   MIVA, the Marshall Islands   Visitor Authority, is quick to point out that his nation is one of but four in the world that is an "atoll nation". That is, all of the land in the country is part of an atoll. These Marshal Island landmasses have some famous names including Bikini and Rongelap of 1950s nuclear testing fame,   Jaluit, a   hub   of 1800s   copra   trading, and Kwajalein, the atoll still used today to test help the U.S. Star Wars missiles and other space defense programs.

But the main center of the Marshall Islands nowadays is modern Majuro, a thriving little hub of businesses, hotels and eateries that is the gateway to diving in   the Marshall Islands.

While some divers just pass through on the way to see the wrecks of atomic testing at Bikini, more and more divers are   finding that Majuro Atoll and it's nearby neighbor of Arno are producing spectacular diving that reef buffs, wreck buffs and fish fans are finding very addictive.

"We get a lot of repeat customers," says Jerry Ross of Bako Divers.

Up until a few years ago, diving and tourism were pretty much afterthoughts in Majuro. But new airline connections and some dedication from people like Ross and another shop, Marshalls Dive Adventures, have opened up diving in a big way.

And the beauty of it is, there's still much more exploring to do. When I was there for a two-week stay, we found two new shipwrecks. That was pretty impressive. And combined with all of the reef, wall and pass diving and the visits to the known wrecks plus a side sojourn to Jaluit Atoll, I had quite a dive trip.

Staying on an atoll is great if you love the sea. No matter where you look, you should be able to see the ocean. It may be the inner lagoon or it may be the Pacific, but water is a fact of life. Wind keeps the coconut trees rustling and the lapping of the waves on the shore is part of the sights and sounds. The main population center on Majuro is not so overbuilt that the visitor feels out of touch with Nature. Buildings are mostly modest. The paved road runs from one end of the large main island to the other, running through town and leads out of town and along beach-lined shores. It ends at a beach park with large shade trees and views of the azure lagoon.

The Outrigger Resort Hotel on Majuro is the home of Bako Divers and sits near town center right on the beach. The beauty of building on an atoll, every room has a lagoon view facing the western setting sun. Nearby are movie theaters, restaurants ranging from

But the really exciting diving is up and away from the city.

A fifteen-minute boat ride will take divers along the many small atoll islands. These isles are the real clich�. White sand beaches, thick coconut palms, coral heads and deep blue waters are the norm. Many can be visited for lunch or a day of snorkeling and sunbathing.

For divers, the Holy Grail is to dive one of the atoll's major passes at incoming tide. Ross has dived the mouth of the island's major pass from north to south and found a favorite spot he calls The Aquarium. When the tide is right, fish gather here in great numbers and lots of pelagic fish appear as well.

Taco Bill's to Indian food, some lively bars and handicraft shops that feature some of the famous Marshallese weavings. The hotel offers some nice snorkeling reefs and there's a Marshallese traditional sailing canoe school right next door.

The wall leading from the outer reef into the channel is also a good site that can provide quite a drift ride. Here rare fish, like the Tinker's butterflyfish (chaetodon tinkerii) are found along the wall. Biologists are continually amazed at the fish that they are finding in Majuro. One University of Hawaii ichytologist told me that the Majuro reefs hold amazing diversity. He had named new species in but a few weeks work. And he added that the southern atolls might even be more diverse.

The Kalalin Pass Wall offers a steep coral wall and great visibility. Divers commonly see green sea turtles, eagle rays, big dogtooth tuna and gray reef sharks glide on the current in search for food. Nearer to the pass, 8 to 10 foot silvertip sharks have been sighted in deeper water.

For a more relaxing second dive, there's Bokolap Island. A dive here can range anywhere from 12 to 120 feet and the brilliant white sand and amazing coral heads are highlighted by a sea-covered war wreck. This WWII U.S. torpedo plane in 115 ft. is a great way to start the dive. From there, the diver can wind up the wall to some healthy, Medusalike coral heads that hold four different species of anemone, three species of clownfish, Harlequin shrimp, three species of lionfish, nudibranches and thousands of glass fish.

One of Majuro's most popular sites is the Parking Lot. As the name suggests, this is an array of former U.S. military vehicles and other war relics that are now small reefs but still recognizable as war remnants. A small coral pinnacle marks the spot where Jeeps, trucks, a Navy tugboat and a LCU (landing craft) were abandoned and sunk at the end of WWII. The relics, now artificial reefs, are home to colorful sponges, corals, and tropical fish of many species. This area is a favorite for photography and exploration.

It was here that Ross, being befriended by a school of pilot fish, took me to his newest find. It was a US Navy tug from war era that was in very good shape in about 115 feet of water. The tug had a wooden hull that was now little more than ribs, but the

steel bow piece and steel push bumper as well as the engine were all intact and resting in white sand. A school of batfish had adopted it and sea whips grew from every part of the ship. It was certainly a pretty find. There is a second tug like it at Parking Lot in shallow water but it is bent and not nearly as nice as this little war relic.

During the week we also visited Ratak-Ralak, an inter-island transfer freighter. At Anemonit Island a DC3 fuselage and many beautiful corals waited. At the cleverly named Fourth Island a stunning anemone with the endemic Marshallese clownfish and nice coral wall were the day's fare. Third Island had schooling chubs and jacks and nice upper plate and castle corals in bright white sand. Pinnacle No. 9 featured lots of corals and fish. In fact, Majuro Lagoon is full of coral pinnacles that rise from the sandy lagoon bottom to just below its surface. These hard coral gardens are amazing, colorful, and teeming with life. Like huge condominium complexes, they seem to be self-sustaining ecosystems.

The lagoon has nearly 800 species of fish, around 400 corals and numerous invertebrates like crabs, lobsters, anemones, urchins, sponges, clams and sea stars.

Other wreck sites include plane remnants like a Grumman "Duck, An F6F Hellcat is but 500 meters from the dive shop dock at the Outrigger. There's a Grumman Avenger, B-24 Liberator and the popular DC-3 cargo-plane fuselage that was placed near shore at Anemonit Island, a frequently used beach park. This is a little bonus for snorkelers.

Like I said, we found two ships during my visit. The next was even more exciting than the little tug. Majuro has a self-styled resident shipwreck and diving historian named Matt Holly. About a decade ago, Holly had, for various reasons, the occasion to sink an inter-island refrigerator ship. Since then, no one had visited this wreck. Recent charting had produced a blip of this vessel and we went looking for it. By using some reckoning and good guesswork by Ross, we came upon the ship and found it intact, upright and sitting in a slight current line in

open sand at about 135 feet. This ship was a former copra hauler taking supplies and passengers to the outer islands and then hauling copra (dried coconut) back to Majuro for processing.

But what we found was coconuts, but fish and lots of them. A huge resident school of spadefish, some 200, augments the ship's other resident fish species. Also, there were giant sweetlips, which a couple of accompanying ichytologists said were documented on this dive in the Marshall Islands for the first time. The ship has sea whip growth on the bow and huge coral trout and groupers in the holds and open wheelhouse. Ross has been back since the discovery and development of this site is ongoing.

If diving one atoll isn't enough, atoll fever may take over and the call to Arno is a reasonable cure. Arno is famous for it's "love school" where young women reportedly go to learn how to please their future husbands. "Graduates" of this school are reportedly highly sought by local men.

Arno sits just 9.5 miles across open water from Majuro. Largely undeveloped, it is half again as large as Majuro but the total population is fewer than 3,000 people. The calm months in May through July are the best time to dive here.

The lack of development translates into pristine diving conditions. Visibility averages over 100 feet and the sea life is unreal. Superlatives mentioned about the outer reef sites on Majuro increases here, including the size of the fish and their representative numbers.

Arno has over 175 miles of outer reef, much of which is still unexplored by scuba divers. New dive sites are being developed and expeditions to locations that have never been dove before are taken each summer. For example, the awesome silvertip reef sharks seen on Majuro, which reach lengths of over 8 ft., have been encountered at lengths up to and exceeding ten feet at sites on Arno. That equates to a shark weighing over 300 pounds!

Illian Point on Arno Atoll has to be one of the Marshall Islands' top ten dives. This high current area at the atoll tip attracts all forms of marine life. Here divers see big sea turtles, large schools of pelagic fish and many more reef fish. Dives at Arno Atoll are weather

permitting, due to the fact that the trip to Arno is across open water which can become rough during periods of high wind.

In all, a trip to Majuro and its neighbor is a great experience. Enjoy the daily dives; explore the many restaurants and nightlife and experience atoll life. With only four nations like it is the world (others being Kiribati, The Cooks and The Maldives), the atolls of the Marshalls in general, and Majuro in particular, are sure to provide a unique experience.

Tim Rock attended the journalism program at the University of Nebraska - Omaha and has been a professional broadcast and print photojournalist for 30 years. The majority of those years have been spent in the Western and Indo Pacific reporting on environmental and conservation issues. He has won the prestigious Excellence in the Use of Photography from the Society of Publisher's in Asia. He also lists many other awards for documentaries, television shows including producer of ACE award finalist Aquaquest Micronesia, photography and writing. He works as a correspondent for numerous Pacific Rim magazines. He is the author of 6 Lonely Planet/Pisces series guides including The Diving and Snorkeling Guides to South Africa and Mozambique, Chuuk-Pohnpei-Kosrae, Palau, Bali & Lombok, Guam & Yap

and Papua New Guinea. Rock's photographic work is represented by his own Guam-based agency and by photographic agents worldwide.

Contact:
Double Blue Images - Photography by Tim Rock,
e-mail: timrock@doubleblue.com
Website: www.doubleblue.com or: www.timrock.com

Majuro must have some of the most favorable diving conditions anywhere. The average water temperature is a comfortable 83 degrees year round. Also, the average air temperature is over 80 degrees. Water clarity is normally excellent at incoming tide and pretty good even at outgoing.

The Aquarium is located in the middle of the outer reef wall of Kalalin Channel. A natural "horseshoe" creates an area where tidal flow is compressed concentrating the flow of rich, open ocean seawater as it enters Majuro Lagoon. During incoming tides this area is a haven for an extremely large school of big eye jacks and also striped jacks. Other fish include black and red snapper, barracuda, powder blue surgeonfish and thousands of others. The sandy ocean floor at the base of this site is a resting site for sleeping reef sharks and big reef rays. Gray reef, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks cruise in and out of the many fish schools. We also saw manta rays, schools of rainbow runners, big Napoleon wrasse and endless table corals that give the place a surreal feeling as they are so large, healthy and numerous.