I did a series of dives there in Feb to survey a desalination plant outfall at the SE corner of Tarawa Atoll. My understanding is that there is no dive operator in Tarawa, however we were able to use tanks and compressor from the gov't fisheries office. I would not count on this being available, we were doing an important infrastructure project so the gov't was inclined to help. I was pleasantly surprised at the state of the oceanside wall at the SE corner, mostly healthy coral, good fish life including giant trevally and little trash. I also found a pair of props from a WW2 B24 that were not known.
Lagoon diving would be a no-go as the lagoon is very shallow sand and polluted with waste and garbage. Topside, the atoll is very crowded and full of trash. My room was more like a jail cell and I would say the food is not adequate.
I would not go to Tarawa as a tourist. There used to be a guy named Kim running dive operations on Christmas Island but I have not heard of him in a decade or more so I suspect he is gone.
@bakodiver391 &
@Jim Carbin
Not sure I ever thought my diving experience on Christmas Island (Kiritamati) would be useful to share
I've been to Christmas Island several times, the first time ~20 years ago, the last about 4 years ago. In short the diving was great the first time, only "good" after that. The reefs around the atoll have taken a beating (quite a bit of bleaching), and the one flight in a week (on Tuesdays, either from Nadi or Honolulu) make getting there and away... not easy.
Kim Anderson (an American) used to run the primary dive operation on the island, but he left well before the pandemic. The only dive operation I'm familiar with is attached to the Villages Hotel (although the old Captain Cook hotel has been "renovated" and is now the Christmas Island Lodge - I haven't heard they offer diving).
Kim (and his DM, Russell) were great to dive with - my wife and I were the only (boat) divers on the island for the week we were there, and Kim was the only one with a boat for diving (we did see a couple of other divers trying to shore dive through some fairly large waves on the ocean side of the atoll). At the time, my wife and I felt it was near the best diving we had ever done (up until that point).
Rather than reminisce - here's the good and not so good take aways from my last trip.
- the coral is taking a beating due to bleaching. Virtually all the coral inside of the (massive) atoll is showing signs of thermal stress. Much of the coral on the ocean side is also showing signs of bleaching down to about 25-30 feet.
- The reef is almost entirely all hard coral, so this is significant.
- It's not as "fishy" as it once was. The locals never developed (or more correctly, "lost") their ocean going skills, so fishing used to only happen inside the lagoon or near the passes. The schools of fish outside the atoll were massive and mostly untouched within the Kirabati economic exclusivity zone. Added to this, Kiribati has since leased some of the fishing rights to various countries, so there has been fishing pressure (esp. on sharks and larger fish, like tuna, etc.).
- Food: the fresh food in any of the hotels is either caught in the ocean or lagoon, or flown in on the weekly flight. To understand why, you probably need to spend some time reading about the history of the island post-WWII when it was used for atmospheric testing of various atomic weapons by both the British and US in the 50's and 60's. The fish was often great, but don't expect a lot of choice (I think we ate peanut butter sandwhiches 6 days in a row for lunch).
On the plus side:
- The mantas are still there - on an incoming tide you can follow them into the lagoon and snorkel or dive with them every day if you would like
- You can dive with spinner dolphins in the mornings- just have to be patient while the pod "wakes up" and starts heading out of the lagoon.
- "Lionfish Wall" is still full of lionfish...
- There are still reef sharks to be found on the ocean side of the atoll. Sometimes in good numbers.
- The wreck of the Aeon is still there, although you'll need to find someone both who knows where it is, and willing to take you (it's a shore dive, entry through (small) surf). The last time we did this dive there were a few (very territorial) grey reef sharks around the wreck.
- We've snorkeled with Mola Mola during the surface interval between dives on a couple of occasions
How can you learn more?
Kiritimati (Christmas Island) is world famous for basically one thing. It's one of the 1-2 best bonefishing destinations in the world (or so we were told). Anglers come to Christmas Island to spend days standing in the shallower parts of the lagoon to catch bonefish (as well as other fish). This is where all the tourism infrastructure comes from, so to learn more - follow the fishermen
Frontiers Travel has specialized in getting people who want to fish to/from Christmas Island for a few decades. They are also are a great source of information for other activities on the island (like diving).
Kiritimati is very remote, and it can be hard to get to (if the plane doesn't arrive, you're spending two weeks on the island, or waiting another week to get there). The food is "average" to "below average" (except for the fresh fish), the diving used to be better (rising water temperatures), but there is no other place like it on the planet. It will likely completely disappear as rising ocean levels continue, so if you have a chance, the time, and the interest, it's a unique experience.
