Explorers aboard the E/V Nautilus have completed their first deep-sea dive to revisit the wreck of the Akagi, a ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy from World War II.
Image of the wreck of the Akagi. (Photo: NOAA).
At a depth of 5.5 kilometers below the ocean surface, the team of explorers from Japan and the United States conducted the first visual survey of the wreck since it sank to the ocean floor 81 years ago, according to IFL Science. At that time, the Akagi was regarded as the flagship of the Japanese Navy. The ship was struck by bombs from the U.S. military and subsequently sank, significantly impacting the course of the Battle of Midway near the Hawaiian Islands.
Initially, a team of deep-sea explorers and historians aboard the R/V Petrel conducted a dive using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with sonar in 2019. They later captured sonar images revealing the long-lost aircraft carrier Akagi, located at a depth of 5.5 kilometers in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, 2,092 kilometers northwest of Pearl Harbor. Nearly four years later, Nautilus researchers deployed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to the seafloor. This marked the first time humans have visually observed the wreck in real-time since the sinking in 1942.
The research team conducted a non-invasive dive in September 2023 to document the historically significant wreck, assess its condition, and honor those who lost their lives on both sides of the conflict. Due to its remote location and extreme depth, surveying the Akagi wreck alongside many other lost ships from the Battle of Midway presents a significant challenge.
Situated beneath the dark, cold waters and high pressure of the Pacific Ocean, the Akagi represents one of the most isolated underwater graves in the world. Observations from the ROV camera show damage from the battle, including a portion of the ship’s deck overturned due to pressure buildup from the explosion. The Akagi was one of four Japanese aircraft carriers sunk during the four-day Battle of Midway.
