Solomon Islands · Guadalcanal
Bonegi Wrecks
Dry-season visibility and logistics are generally strongest in this period.
The Bonegi wrecks (Hirokawa Maru and Kinugawa Maru) on Guadalcanal are shore-divable WWII Japanese transports beached during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Combined with broader Solomons diving, including reef and tech sites.
Good season
April–November is dry season. Year-round divable.
Trip duration
5–7 nights on Guadalcanal or liveaboard.
Dive style
Shore-entry wreck diving; penetration on Bonegi 1.
Dive level
Open Water for exterior; Advanced + wreck for penetration.
Reef health
What you’ll actually findOne of the few reefs whose live coral has held up over the last decade. Plan with confidence.
Coral reef health
How is this calculated?On current trend, no live coral by ~2249. Losing about 0.2% cover per year — roughly 225 years of reef left to see if nothing changes.
Heat stress right now
Mild warmth. Worth watching — no bleaching yet.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch · updated May 2026 · 0 °C-week heat dose
What to expect on a dive
WWII wrecks with mature coral growth. The natural reef nearby has held up reasonably well.
Sources, methodology, and the raw numbers
Raw observed numbers
- Coral cover: 45% (survey Sep 2024, Reef Check Indonesia/Malaysia/Philippines survey)
- Bleached: 8%
- Recent mortality: 2%
- Coral Triangle — observed condition reflects the stable regional pattern.
Raw thermal numbers
- NOAA CRW alert level: Watch
- Degree Heating Weeks: 0 °C-wk
- SST anomaly: +1.1 °C
How we summarise this
Observed coral cover, bleaching, and mortality come from named in-situ surveys with a stated date and method — they describe one snapshot of one reef and do not extrapolate to neighbouring sites. Current thermal stress is satellite-derived from NOAA Coral Reef Watch at ~5 km resolution; it indicates risk, not observed coral damage. We deliberately separate observed condition, current thermal stress, and projection — and we never publish a projection without a documented model and uncertainty.
Sources
- Reef Check — Reef Check Foundation
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch — U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program — Australian Institute of Marine Science
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network — GCRMN / ICRI
- Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment — AGRRA Program / Perry Institute for Marine Science
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program — NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
- NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch — NOAA NESDIS / STAR
- Allen Coral Atlas — Arizona State University Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority — Australian Government
- International Coral Reef Initiative — ICRI Secretariat
- Reef Life Survey — Reef Life Survey Foundation
- NASA PO.DAAC — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech
- Copernicus Marine Service — Mercator Ocean International for the European Union
- NASA Ocean Color (OB.DAAC) — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Ocean Biology Processing Group
- Argo float network — International Argo Program / UCSD
- CoralWatch — University of Queensland
- IMOS / AODN — Integrated Marine Observing System / Australian Ocean Data Network
- WRI Reefs at Risk Revisited — World Resources Institute
- Ocean Health Index — OHI partnership (Conservation International + UCSB + NCEAS)
- IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere (SROCC) — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- GOA-ON — Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network — GOA-ON Secretariat + IOC-UNESCO
- HAEDAT — Harmful Algae Event Database — IOC-UNESCO Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms
- NCEI Marine Microplastics — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
Reef condition changes year to year. If you visit, consider supporting responsible-travel and conservation operators on the ground.
Pressure on this reef
Protection · fishing · what you can doProtected-area status
Multi-use MPAInside a designated MPA that permits regulated fishing and other uses. Worth checking which zones at this location are no-take.
Fishing pressure
Low fishing pressureDominant pressures
- WWII wreck legacy
- small-scale fishing
- warming
1 Green Fins-verified operator known at this location.
What you can do
Solomon Islands reefs are customary-owned; conservation works through village protocols. Tip directly to communities; respect WWII wreck etiquette.
Protection status sourced from Protected Planet / WDPA and refined with Marine Protection Atlas. Fishing pressure proxy is Global Fishing Watch AIS data. See the methodology for what these sources can and can’t prove.
Dive sites here
2 curated
Hirokawa Maru (Bonegi I)
Japanese transport beached on 14 November 1942 during the naval battle of Guadalcanal, then bombed and burned out by US aircraft. The 156 m …

Kinugawa Maru (Bonegi II)
The Kinugawa Maru — 'Bonegi 2' — is a 135 m Japanese armed transport run aground and shelled to a wreck on 15 November 1942 during the Guada…
Gear
What to bringWhat divers say
“Walking into the ocean and onto a Japanese transport from the Solomon campaign — history at hand.”