Ghost Fleet' Sinking - Again by Colin Woodard Reprinted with permission of The Christian Science Monitor Micronesia's coral reefs face deterioration as locals fish with dynamite, and divers pilfer World War II relics. At the bow, the freighter is eerily intact.
Fish swim around the swivel gun, and rusting trucks are still on deck.
A thick chain hanging from the bow runs along the sandy bottom to where the anchor lies. A diver checks out the cannon on a sunken World War II Japanese ship, one of 40 ships sunk in a massive US air attack in 1944. Known as the 'ghost fleet,' the site has become the one of the most popular diving locales. Visiting divers steal smaller objects and tamper or disrupt larger ones, hastening their deterioration. Yacht anchors, diver activity, and dynamite explosions damage or weaken the sunken ships.