The UK will soon be home to the world’s deepest diving pool, following proposals for a brand new 50m deep diving facility in Essex.
Although still in the planning stages, the new pool named Blue Abyss will be the most comprehensive underwater research, diving and neutral buoyancy facility in the world and will cater for scuba divers, free divers and commercial divers. It has also been confirmed that the European Space Agency are interested in using this facility from a research perspective.
John Vickers, director of Blue Abyss Diving, the company behind the project commented: “As far as I am aware, there is no other facility of this kind anywhere in the world. The pool will cater for diving, as both a training establishment and venue in its own right, but there has also been interest from research universities and oil and gas companies for equipment testing purposes and human physiology trials.”
He adds: “It is a unique project that I hope will benefit generations to come.”
Europe already has its fair share of deep pools including the 28m deep Submarine Escape Training Tank in the UK, the 34.5m Nemo33 in Belgium and the 40m Y-40 in Italy, but Blue Abyss will trump all of those in terms of water depth at a staggering 50m and its overall size – at approximately 22,000m³.
While final funding for the project is being negotiated, a site in North Essex has been identified as the preferred location for the complex.
Work on the technical elements and design of the pool have been carried out by Splash International. The pool will be accompanied on the site by a hotel and it is hoped other aquatic marine and space science companies will follow shortly after opening.
