The Sea Tiger

The Sea Tiger is a wreck on the south shore of Oahu, Hawaii. It's one of the most popular wrecks in Hawaii as it is easily accessible by boat just outside Honolulu. It's also a large wreck with a lot of swim-throughs and other features making it a really fun dive.

I've done close to a 100 dives on it and was always excited to visit it. The last dive I did on it was December 2005, so things might have changed.

History

The ship was once Chinese, and was seized for smuggling people into the US. It was then sold a couple of times and given the name 'Sea Tiger' by a fisherman. Eventually it was prepared as a wreck by a commercial submarine company in 1999. The company has since gone out of business and now only divers visit the wreck.

Diving

The wreck sits upright at about 36 meters of water. Normally the maximum depth is around 30 meters as the main deck is at about 28 meters. When I dived it, there wasn't much corals on it as it had been sunken 4-5 years prior. But turtles and other marine life is abundant and it is a good spot to see eagle rays.

Visibility is often fantastic - around 100 feet / 30 meters isn't uncommon.

Penetrations

The Sea Tiger offers many opportunities for penetrations, ranging from swim-throughs to tight corridors deep inside the wreck. A bit of helium in the breathing mix is highly recommended for the more advanced penetrations as it will be below 30 meters of depth. This is pretty much the perfect wreck for wreck penetration training as it has varying levels of challenges.

Swim-throughs

There are corridors on each side of the midship house that offer some exiting swim-throughs for novice wreck divers.

The cargo hold in front of the midship house also offers a slightly more exciting swim-through between the two openings.

Inside the midship there are several areas accessible, some with really narrow corridors and rooms with debris. The engine room is easy to access and has some tight areas.

It's also possible to go down into the cargo holds. There are grates that was put in place before sinking but they have been bent open to allow access. The space is big but apart from some barrels there isn't much to see.

Gotchas

This is the dive site, by far, where I have observed most out-of-air divers. Because it is a 100'/30m dive so easily accessible, a lot of beginner and holiday divers frequent the wreck. So if you dive it, keep an eye out on the way up.