At 1,100 square miles, the Kwajalein lagoon is the largest coral atoll lagoon in the world. The scale is extraordinary — it takes a good hour to cross by boat, and from one shore the opposite side is beyond the horizon. The water is crystalline, sheltered from the open ocean swells by the reef and islands ringing the atoll.
For those with access to the base, the lagoon offers snorkelling, sailing, kayaking, and fishing. The reef fish are abundant and the coral, though damaged in places by decades of military activity and development, still supports diverse marine life.
The WWII wrecks scattered across the lagoon floor add another dimension: in places you can snorkel over wreckage in just a few metres of water. The combination of the lagoon's protected conditions and its historical significance makes it genuinely one of the more remarkable bodies of water in the Pacific — even if almost no one ever gets to see it.