Iron Bottom Sound is the stretch of water between Guadalcanal and Florida Island, named for the extraordinary concentration of warships sunk here during the six-month naval campaign of 1942–43. Dozens of ships lie on the seabed at depths ranging from 20 to 900 metres — some are diveable, others are far too deep to reach.
The accessible wrecks include Japanese and American destroyers, transports, and support vessels. Local dive operators in Honiara run trips to the main sites; visibility in the Sound is generally excellent, and the wrecks are now coated in coral and home to dense fish life. For non-divers, simply knowing what lies beneath the flat blue water between the islands is its own form of history.