Another record in a New Zealand cave

The Australian-Asian record for cave diving in cold water (194m), set on 9 May 2011, lasted just eight months. Craig Challen, together with a group of Australian divers, moved the bar to a depth of 221m.

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Nettlebed is a limestone cave located in the Mount Arthur region of New Zealand. Until April 2010 it was considered the deepest cave in the southern hemisphere. It has been superseded by the neighbouring cave system, Ellis Basin.

During the dive, which lasted 17 hours, four stops were required in air-filled underwater habitats. Inside the habitats, the divers decompressed and rested before returning to the surface.

Challen said after the dive that going so deep into an unexplored cave system was like plunging your own hand into the unknown. This was the third time this team of divers had explored this site. During the previous dive the previous record of 194m was set.

According to the researchers’ speculations, the cave may be as deep as 1,000m, but until someone undertakes further exploration, this theory will remain mere speculation. Harris believes, however, that even with tons of state-of-the-art equipment, much deeper exploration is no longer possible, because at that depth, humans operate beyond the limits for which the human body is prepared.

Source: stuff.co.nz