Truk Lagoon - Nov-Dec 2007

[Warren_L]

The internet was pretty bad there, so this is a repost of some stuff, mostly during the trip. It will be a while until I have the rest of the photos done, since I am off again shortly to California.

edit: I just found out the forum only allows 4 images max per post for some reason, so I had to repost multiple messages. sorry.

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Hello all, a quick hello and update from Truk Lagoon. We were aboard the Truk Odyssey for the last week without any internet (oh the horror!) but as of today we are at Truk Stop resort. The connection here is wireless (I did not expect this) so things are returning to their natural order.

The heat and humidity is pretty high, being only 7 degrees off the equator. However, the diving this week has been fantastic. The visibility however, is really only moderate, but there is a ton to see. I don't have time much for more right now, as we are over the international date line (we are 15 hours ahead - it is Sunday morning right now. Getting ready for a dive briefing shortly.

I will leave you with a few images from the first week. When I have time I will post a more detailed report.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-01.jpg

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-02.jpg

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-03.jpg

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-04.jpg

[Warren_L]

The diving these past couple of weeks has been nothing short of spectacular. If anyone is considering a trip here, I would highly recommend it. There is tons of marine life in addition to the history behind the dozens of wrecks that are scattered about the lagoon. Some are yet to be discovered still. However, with the warm salt water and the multitude of divers that visit the area each year, the wreck has been deteriorating significantly, even in the past few years.

There is diving for both technical and recreational divers on most of the wrecks. Most wrecks start in the 60-70 ft range and bottom out just at the limit of recreation range. However, due to the size of the wrecks, technical decompression dives are your best bet to see much of what the wrecks have to offer. There are other wrecks which are technical range only as well. We did a 200 ft dive on the Aikoku Maru this morning on trimix. This seems to be the exception, though, as most of the wrecks we have dove have plenty to see in the recreational range. Many of the ships are designated "Maru", which is a merchant ship carrying supplies. Because these are not meant to be in battle, they were only outfitted with basic weapons and were ill equipped to defend themselves under attack.

Here are a few more pics from this week.

This is called the "wine cellar", which is in a cargo hold of a merchant ship. The bottles are cases of Sake, which are also littered around other areas of this wreck.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-05.jpg

This is a deck gun of the Aikoku Maru, which sits at around 160 ft. The wreck was sunk in full battle as you can see the deck gun pointed upwards.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-06.jpg

Orange cup anemone, super macro at 2x

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-07.jpg

Unexploded 14" diameter bombs. It was a little unnerving diving around unexploded munitions. Some wrecks had chordite everywhere.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-08.jpg

[Warren_L]

My favourite anemone fish so far.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-09.jpg

[Warren_L]

The diving around here really lends itself primarily to wide angle photography. Most of the warm water trips I have done I have pretty well balanced out the shooting between macro and wide angle, but with all the wrecks and the history behind them, I've been shooting primarily wide angle on the majority of the dives. At the time of the battle which resulted in many of the sinkings (operation Hailstone) the configuration of many of these merchant ships (maru) were very similar. As we dive the wrecks from day to day, many of them seem very similar, but each wreck seems to hold something unique and different, despite their apparent similarities.

The visibility on the wrecks varies. The shallower stuff (to about 100 ft) had viz that varies, but has been mostly around 40-50 ft. Pretty good by our standards, but apparently not the best by Truk standards, The deeper stuff (150ft+) has been considerably better with about 80-100 ft. This makes for better photography and video, but as we all know, with the deeper stuff, there's going to be less time.

We've been mostly doing only 2 dives a day, starting with a deep dive (down to around the 200 ft level) with runtimes in the 2 to 3 hour range depending on your bottom times, then taking 3 hour surface intervals, then doing a shallower dive in the 100-120 ft range max. And by the time we are done, it's late afternoon and while we can do night dives, it is less convenient from the resort. I did night dives every night from the liveaboard last week as it was easy to do.

The state of Chuuk (the name "Truk" is likely a mispronounciation that somehow stuck along the way) is pretty impoverished. People have very little here and the resort itself is almost like an island of luxury compared to the rest of Chuuk. Families are living in small concrete homes with no electricity and running water. Sometimes 15 to a small house smaller than a typical condo. Alcoholism is running rampant and the education system is next to non-existent, were it not for the charity of various groups like the Jesuits who have taken over an old Japanese communications base and converted it into a private school. The government is totally corrupt. There was an attempt to clean things up a while back, which resulted in several high ranking government officials including a superior court magistrate being convicted of various crimes including murder. If you can believe how corrupt it is, the convicted magistrate appealed his sentence to allow for him to be free in the mornings to try cases at court and go back to jail for the rest of the day, Stuff we could not even imagine would happen at home.

Given all this, I am surprised that the internet connection here works as well as it does. It has been spotty, but I've been managing to get through periodically.

Anyhow, here are a few more pictures from our dives.

The next three pictures are from the wreck of the San Francisco Maru. This is a wreck that sits about 210 ft to the silt. Here we have one of the cargo holds showing a wall of undetonated land mines. The cargo holds go down to 200+ ft. These sit roughly about 180 ft at this point.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-10.jpg

Here is an old fire engine being transported in an adjacent cargo hold to the mines.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-13.jpg

Down the wreck a bit in another cargo hold is a whole load of ammunition, I'm no expert on what type of ammo this is, but you can see boxes and boxes of the stuff, with loose rounds lying everywhere. There must be in the the order of millions of rounds sitting in the hold.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-14.jpg


Here is a portable deck gun we saw on another wreck. The divemaster said it might be a howitzer, but I'm not sure about that.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-16.jpg

[Warren_L]

We dove a bomber of some sort (B1??) this afternoon. Here is a top down view of the plane.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-11.jpg

And inside the fuselage. Inside a lot of these wreck and cargo holds are all sorts of baitfish just hiding out. So much you can't even scare them off to get a clear picture most times.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-12.jpg

And of course some requisite fish pictures. Pacific marine life is new to me so I don't know all the names. The las one, of course is another clown fish.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-15.jpg

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-17.jpg

That's it for now. Time for bed. Another dive day will be upon us shortly

[Warren_L]

Ok, one last post before we make the 27 hour trek home. The internet has been off and on for the past couple of days, as has the power, but things seem to be ok right now.


Here are a few more shots from the San Fransisco. The first is of some old cars that were being transported. The hold area here was pretty tight so the fisheye lens was really the only lens that could have taken this shot.


http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-19.jpg


Here is a level of a cargo hold with bombs scattered all over the place. You can see square ends of the bombs with the four fins. Kind of scary swimming around in the holds with these things beneath. There wasn't a lot of room from the ceiling of the hold to the bombs.


http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-20.jpg


The next photo shows some longish crates of something. Not sure what might be in them, but there are some depth charges in the pile. The round objects just beneath the square crates.


http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-21.jpg


This shot is on the deck of the San Fransisco (approx 165 ft), showing one of the tanks. It is a similar shot to the cover of Dan Bailey's book. Same tank, similar angle.


http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-22.jpg

[Warren_L]

And of course some pretty reef fish, all in the shallows.


Don't know who this guy is.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-23.jpg



Don't know this guy either.

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-24.jpg


These are domino damsel fish. They are everywhere living in these coral formations. They hide inside the coral when they get scared and slowly come back out.


http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-25.jpg


One of the interesting problems around here, which perhaps is not unique to the area are divers doing dives they shouldn't be doing. While on the San Fransisco, I encountered some divers from another boat who stopped by during or dive. We were dive bombed by a couple of single tankers on the deck, which is 165 ft+. Seemed somewhat odd considering all the dive and gas planning I did the night before in preparation for the dive. Anyhow, I won't rant on this right now.

Alright, that's it for now. Time to go sit by the ocean for a bit and wait for our sendoff dinner.... then off to the airport. See you guys soon.

[blee]

http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-03.jpg

I guess deck cargo would originally have been well roped or chained down (sort of like something in the centre bottom of the pic?) but do you if know the ships sank more or less horizontally without rolling or pitching much, or did a lot of stuff get scattered over the bottom (maybe buried over the years so hard to see)? How long were these ships, typically, and what sort of hull height are we talking about? I'm thinking that would limit any from sticking the bow or stern too high while sinking.

Figured I'd try to keep some sort of discussion (or Q&A) going. :-)

[blee]

Here is a level of a cargo hold with bombs scattered all over the place. You can see square ends of the bombs with the four fins. Kind of scary swimming around in the holds with these things beneath. There wasn't a lot of room from the ceiling of the hold to the bombs.


http://www.warrenlophotography.com/uw/web2007/truk-2007-20.jpg


I guess conditions like that could make you much more aware of your buoyancy control. :biggrin:

Any idea if the munitions are at all unstable after sixty years under warm seawater? Presumably not too much if there's letting people around there. Or is it just that they're thoroughly soaked?

Alternatively, I think I've heard on land plant life sometimes really liking the nitrogen in (most?) explosives. Could it have been biodegraded over the years? Less plant life inside a dark cargo hold at 200', but if there's enough current to flow algae through...

[Chantelle]

Welcome back, Warren! Incredible pics, as always! :)

[Neil]

Great pictures!



Here we have one of the cargo holds showing a wall of undetonated land mines.


I bet you were careful about watching your buoyancy and practicing no-contact diving on that one :D

[owlbill]

Very nice photos Warren. Thanks for the contribution and an awesome photo thread.

[marc g]

Warren,

Great photos

[scubagirl]

Great photos, Warren! Sounds like you had a great trip.

[Warren_L]

I guess deck cargo would originally have been well roped or chained down (sort of like something in the centre bottom of the pic?) but do you if know the ships sank more or less horizontally without rolling or pitching much, or did a lot of stuff get scattered over the bottom (maybe buried over the years so hard to see)? How long were these ships, typically, and what sort of hull height are we talking about? I'm thinking that would limit any from sticking the bow or stern too high while sinking.

Figured I'd try to keep some sort of discussion (or Q&A) going. :-)

I'm not certain whether any of this stuff was secured on the deck or not. I didn't see any evidence that this was the case. Many of these ships were probably not underway as they were moored in the harbour, but who knows.

As for the size of the wrecks, they were typically in the 400-500 ft range in length, and height wise from the bottom to the deck might have been around 40-50 ft. The top of the masts and kingposts were probably about 70-80 ft above the deck.

[Warren_L]

I guess conditions like that could make you much more aware of your buoyancy control. :biggrin:

Any idea if the munitions are at all unstable after sixty years under warm seawater? Presumably not too much if there's letting people around there. Or is it just that they're thoroughly soaked?

Alternatively, I think I've heard on land plant life sometimes really liking the nitrogen in (most?) explosives. Could it have been biodegraded over the years? Less plant life inside a dark cargo hold at 200', but if there's enough current to flow algae through...

I'm no munitions expert, but some of the stuff is likely still active. A while back some of the locals brought up a landmine and was wondering if it was still active. They threw rocks at it until it blew themselves to bits. They found out the hard way. The chordite is often recovered as well and used to dynamite the water for fishing.

I just prefered not to touch any of the stuff. There is some aviation fuel as well in some of these barrels, which will burn on contact. Water has no effect on alleviating this, so you still do have to be pretty careful around this stuff.

[Warren_L]

Very nice photos Warren. Thanks for the contribution and an awesome photo thread.

Thanks all, it was a great trip and a ton of fun to dive and photo the wrecks. Lots of new things I'd not seen before. I hope to get back again one day, but there's so many other places I want to go to as well.

The guy organizing the trip was shooting footage for a Nat Geographic program called "Oceans of Steel" which may be coming out sometime next year. You might even see me swimming around shooting photos in it.

[Terry]

Great article and shots, Warren!