Wreck of Japanese aircraft carrier Akitsu Maru - Jeju Island

Diving the Akitsu Maru off Jeju is a proper journey back in time. This isn’t one of those perfect, intact wrecks you see in magazines, but that’s precisely why we love it. The Akitsu Maru is broken, scattered, a testament to its violent end, and that brokenness creates amazing swim-throughs and unexpected hiding spots for marine life. You’ll find yourself navigating through mangled steel plates, sections of hull, and unidentifiable machinery, all heavily encrusted with soft corals and anemones. Our favourite parts are the deeper sections, where the light fades and the sheer scale of the wreckage feels more profound. Look for the schools of juvenile rockfish that dart in and out of the metal framework, and we’ve seen some surprisingly large moray eels peeking out from behind a bulkhead. Visibility can be a bit variable here, so we’d suggest aiming for slack tide and checking local reports; a good day makes all the difference when you’re trying to pick out the details of a fragmented wreck like this. It’s a dive for those who appreciate history and the way the ocean reclaims its own, rather than a pretty reef.

Location

Jeju Island, South Korea, East Asia

Coordinates

33.283330, 128.183330

Type

wreck