Looking for info on Kingman Reef

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lardo5150

Contributor
Messages
99
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Location
Little Elm, Texas
# of dives
25 - 49
So, I am sitting here watching Wild Pacific on Animal Planet.
They are doing a part on a place I have never heard about, Kingman Reef.

That place looks incredible.

Quick google search for "dive kingman reef" does not really return anything other than bogus sites.
A search here for kingman reef gives me two results, one for bush making it a park and some other bogus result.

Does anyone have or know where I can get info on this place?
Can you dive there? Are there liveaboards that go there? etc. etc. etc.
 
Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge
http://www.fws.gov/kingmanreef/

It's part of the Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary since 2006 -
Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument

So the answer is probably no. Unless you're part of a government approved scientific research team/study I don't think you have much chance. The only liveaboard in Hawaii afaik is the Kona Aggressor and they dive off the Big Island only.

Voyage to Kure was filmed in the reserve: http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/episodes/kure/
Amazon.com sells it. I have the video, there's some great underwater footage.
 
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LMAO X2, I was just watching the repeat, and began googling, it lead me to your forum. Looks pretty good... Kingman does look spectacular!!!
 
Hilarious! I've been watching Wild Pacific all day and just saw the part about Kingman Reef. So, I've been googling the heck out of it just to find that we probably can never dive it! Damn!
 
I know a few people that have been there and they all say it is spectacular. Unfortunately, they are all privileged scientists that went there to do research. For us as lowly recreational divers, it is off limits.
 
haha me too, I guess it's one of the places that need to be protected from stupid tourist divers unlike us environmentally sensitive divers.
 
I know it is much further to the north, but if you want isolated, unique dive sites near Hawaii, the next best thing appears to be Midway.


Midway Scuba Diving has some info on diving at Midway. But another page on that website says that Midway was closed to most tourism in 2002. If you are interested in diving in the far NW Hawaiian Islands, a request for info via this website would be a good first step.

The book "Diving Hawaii and Midway" by Mike Severns and Pauline Fiene-Severns has about 10 pages on the wildlife both underwater and on land, and describes several divesites at Midway.

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The other place you might look at is Christmas Island. Not the Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, but the one remote place near the equator, pretty much due south of Hawaii. It is part of Kiribati and the island also goes by the name Kiritimati. See http://christmasislanddiversassociation.com/
There is 737 service from Honolulu once a week.

It is about 450 miles to the SE of Kingman Reef.
 
Pretty much what diversteve said. That's not to say that it's impossible...a friend of mine was so determined to make the trip to the northwest islands that he put his own expedition together. By all accounts, it was superb. (I forget where they went exactly, unfortunately.) It was a massive undertaking, since they needed to bring absolutely everything with them - tanks (about 40-apiece, since there was no compressor on board...he borrowed everything he could from friends, and pretty much cleaned out the staff's tanks at the LDS to make up the balance), dive equipment, tool kits, food, bedding...the whole lot. Very expensive also, since they had to absorb charter fees and fuel costs (fuel costs here in HI are pretty horrific compared to the continental United States). The trip also wasn't for the weak-stomached - ocean conditions here can be extremely unpredictable, especially in the channels between the islands. My mate said the weather on the way back to Oahu was so crummy, that no-one even went on deck to relieve himself over the rail without someone watching over them.

I have heard of people being specially invited to tag along on research trips - I believe NOAA goes up to Kingman and such places on occasion - but for the most part, diving those waters remains very distant dream (and a logistical nightmare). Ah, well.
 
I to recently learned of Kingman Reef from watching Planet Green and was led here after searching for dive ops. The last time I checked the ocean belongs to everyone and unless all nations have joined into to a, God forbid,new world govt no one has any jurisdiction over this place. They can put the name of sanctuary, preserve, park or whatever on it and it does not matter. What I am getting at here is that anyone can go there on a private vessel and there is not a damn thing anyone can do about it. This place is located some 1000nm south of the Hawaiian Islands and over 3000nm from any continent clearly placing it in international waters. All we have to do is organize a group, hire a vessel and go dive the place. Thoughts?
 
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