Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

YO-257 Wreck

The YO-257 is a 53-metre former United States Navy yard oiler that served from 1944 through the Vietnam era refuelling fleet vessels around the Pacific. She was decommissioned, cleaned and sunk on 10 June 1989 by Atlantis Submarines about a mile off Waikiki to act both as an artificial reef and as a stop on their tourist submarine routes. The wreck sits upright on a sand bottom at 35 metres with the main deck at around 27 metres and the railings as shallow as 24 metres, making her a perfectly framed deep dive for advanced air or nitrox divers. Multiple openings allow safe penetration into the cargo holds. The site shares a mooring with the smaller San Pedro fishing trawler nearby, and the two are usually combined into one dive. Marine life is excellent for an Oahu wreck: large green sea turtles cruise the deck, white tip reef sharks rest in the lower holds, and schools of pyramid butterflyfish and milletseed butterflyfish work the rails. Currents are typically moderate.