If we had our time over we would spend a month in Rongelap. Its a beautiful atoll with comfortable anchorages, long stretches of sandpits,islands for beach combing, and some excellent snorkelling/diving. Rongerlap is virtually uninhabited thanks to unintended fallout from the Bravo test at Bikini. Scientists had underestimated the fission reaction by 2.5 times and so instead of 5 megatons it was almost 15 megatons of TNT. Making matters worse the wind sheer changed to the east which caused the fallout to drop onto Rongelap. The head scientist had full discretion over the timing of detonation but decided to proceed because a delay would ruin all their preparation in setting up timed measures.
Rongelap residents were evacuated 48 hrs after Bravo then returned in 1957 after Rongelap was declared safe for re-habitation by the Atomic Energy Commission. It was soon evident that the land was still contaminated. Eventually in 1985 Greenpeace evacuated residents to Kwajalein Atoll. Now there are caretakers on Rongelap island where there is a fully built village with modern amenities, an airstrip that can take large planes, a new airport building, and paved roads throughout. The problem is that the islanders do not trust that Rongelap is inhabitable and its hard to blame them given the behaviour of the US. There are no doubt other factors such as lack of communication (according to Fred the wifi hasn't worked since 2012 and Marshall Air is notoriously unreliable). Hopefully Rongelap will be fit to re-inhabit one day but for us, who are passing through, it was wonderful because the Atoll's natural resources are very much intact.
A rather pink Fred thanks to an incorrect setting on the camera. Fred is the elder on Rongelap and was involved in the Greenpeace evacuations
Rongelap Airport
An innovative way to use fishing floats and an example of the modern housing built here
The staff make copra on the side and the pigs benefit too
Paul pondering how to use the yellow floats that are strung though nets. We discovered in The Solomon Islands that these are treasured by longboat owners. They join two together and use them to roll their boats ashore
Black tip reef shark
This reef is part of a wall along the south facing pass east of Mellu Island We saw sharks, devil rays, turtles and much more here