Chuuck Island, originally know as “Truk Lagoon” is an island group in the south western part of the Pacific Ocean. There you will find the best wreck dives in the world because of their preservation and beauty.
Depths vary from the surface in excess of 200 feet. You can penetrate into the wrecks but you can’t remove any artifacts. Caustic substances like high octane aviation fuel, oils, gasoline and acid exist on many of the wreck dives. Explosives, mines, munitions, detonators, torpedoes and shells are still “live”.
The wreck dives of Truk Lagoon are war graves. Fines & jail sentence possibly await those who disobey. The Trukese hopes to preserve their lagoon as an underwater living monument and museum of the war.
On the morning of Feb 17, 1944 “Operation Hailstone” a surprise attack by United States Navy aircraft caught Japanese merchant vessels and warships by surprise in Truk Lagoon. 400 tons of bombs and torpedo were dropped. Attacks continued through Feb18, 1944. A total of forty ships were sunk and thousands of Japanese were lost. Ten weeks later, a second successful raid sank more ships. For more than two years after the war, oil from the sunken ships covered the beaches and reefs.
The Lagoon is 40 mile wide surrounded by a fringing coral reef. To the south-east is Kuop Atol and Lagoon.
Chuuk state consists of seven major island groups lying within the Eastern Caroline Islands, about 617 miles southeast of Guam and 3,262 miles southwest of Hawaii. The total land mass of Chuuk is approximately 77 square miles.
