acques Cousteau led a group of ‘aquanauts’ in an underwater habitat
in the Red Sea in 1963, proving that such expeditions were possible.
Photograph: Robert B Goodman/National Geographic Creative
Posted on 02/05/2025 4:36:54 PM PST by BenLurkin
Their project is called Deep (not The Deep) and the site was chosen after a global search for the perfect location to build and test underwater accommodation, which the project founders say will enable them to establish a “permanent human presence” under the sea from 2027.
The 20-hectare (50-acre) site in Gloucestershire was once a limestone quarry that was flooded in the 1990s and used by a dive school until 2022. Now, it is being transformed into a state-of-the-art facility that will feature accommodation units, a training school and a platform for mini submersibles to take people down to living spaces in the 80-metre deep (260ft) lake. These underwater units, known as sentinels, will then be used to train scientists – and eventually anyone else who has the money to rent them – to live under the ocean for much longer than has ever been achieved before, and at a greater depth.
The units can be lowered to 200 metres (656ft) under the sea, which is where the sunlight zone ends and the twilight zone of the ocean begins. Marine life found at that depth includes the kind of creatures most people will only ever see via David Attenborough documentaries and is a place about which we still know very little.
The idea of Deep’s sentinels is that, initially, people will be able to stay inside for up to 28 days at a time – though the hope is that this could one day be extended to months … and beyond. “The goal is to live in the ocean, for ever."
Jacques Cousteau pioneered underwater living in the 1960s, starting with the Continental Shelf (or Conshelf) I, a five-metre long, 2.5-metre wide steel cylinder that was set up off Marseille at a depth of 10 metres.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The smell of that place must have been ghastly.
Well, they are French.
Jacqueline Bisset. ‘Nuff said.
Nuclear submarine crews stay deep for months at a time.
I was asked by the president of a French company to find some great tech guys for him. Found one who had worked for me. He sent me roses. Quit pretty quickly due to the continuous smoking everywhere and told me he should have sent me dead roses.
I read that life there wasn't desirable. The humidity was always high and mildew was pretty much everywhere. Paper was of little use and electronics must be expensive marine grade.
They have their very own nuclear reactor powering all sorts of life support systems.
Yeah, the Euros still smoke like chimneys. It is nasty.
I’d prefer to live on Mars or the moon. They’d be safer.
A new Atlantis? Atlantis was a mythical civilization that existed ABOVE the water. It ended when it sunk below the waves.
Dude, you’re harshing their mellow.
LOL. Not just that old movie; more embarrassing is an Aquaman-type character in "The Boys" (an anti-superhero series) called The Deep who's so bereft of morality he has an affair with an octopus. Literally and most grossly.
No more calamari for me now.
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