Deep IMPACT

From Atlantis to Jacques Cousteau and James Bond, the idea of underwater living has obsessed humans for centuries. Now, a pioneering project in a flooded quarry is bringing the dream closer to reality.

- Fergus Collins

Intend to change the face of history... by creating a world - a new and beautiful world - beneath the sea.”

This bold plan was revealed by Karl Stromberg, lead villain in the 1977 Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me. I am reminded of Stromberg’s plan to build an underwater empire as I make my way into the headquarters of DEEP Institute and learn about the company’s mission to “make humans aquatic”. Though I’m aware how trite it is to compare this to a far-fetched 1970s spy romp, it turns out that the reality isn’t so very different.

DEEP is not far from my home in south Wales, but I’d heard only rumours about it before I visited. A little beyond Chepstow, near the village of Tidenham at the southern edge of the Forest of Dean, I turn off the main road into a high-security compound containing the temporary cabins and cranes of a construction site. Beyond lies a flooded, sheer-sided quarry.

I’m met by Phil Short, a diver with 36 years’ experience who is DEEP’s underwater research and training lead - and my guide for this mission. He explains that the tight security regulating entry to the site is as much to ensure safety - deep water and ongoing major construction make this a hazardous place to roam - as it is about protecting intellectual property.

Having watched the health and safety video and donned a hi-vis vest, hard hat and buoyancy aid, I ask Phil to outline DEEP’s mission. “It’s an ocean company aiming to make humans aquatic,” he says. “Not by some bizarre physical adaptation [I had mentioned fins and gills] but by engineering, enabling them to inhabit a subsea habitat - effectively, a space station in the ocean. We’re creating an environment where scientists can live underwater and conduct intensive studies there rather than having to return to the surface each day.”