Truk & Palau March1990

Click here for a map of Truk

Click here for a map of Palau

Truk (or Chuuk as it is being spelled more recently) is one of the states in the federated States of Micronesia (FSM), located near Guam. It was a Japanese stronghold in World War 2 and was the 2nd largest shipping harbor in the Japanese empire. In February 1944 the Americans launched an air raid (operation Hailstone) against the ships in the lagoon and sank 60 ships in 48 hours. The sunken ships have become an under water Museum. In these protected waters, the ships are well preserved – Most are within the depth range of sport divers. Many artifacts have been taken out of the insides of the wrecks so that divers not comfortable penetrating the wrecks still have plenty to see. In addition to the historic artifacts, the ships are teaming with coral growth and pacific tropical fish life.

The astute visitor to my web site will notice that I returned to truk a couple of years later. Well that is easy to explain – I love wrecks and Truk is Wreck Heaven. On this trip, I was part of an trip organized by Underwater World in Horsham PA. I have kept in touch with a few of the others on this trip over the years. We stayed at the Truk Continental hotel and at the Palau Pacific Resort. I was still a relative novice at shooting underwater video and the transition from 8MM to digital video format lost a lot of resolution, but The video still shows why Truk and Palau are on many divers best destination lists.

Click here to see the video

Click here to learn more about Truk

Click here to Learn more about Operation Hailstone

Click here to learn more about Palau