OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein is leading a dive into Dean’s Blue Hole alongside two others
OceanGate’s co-founder is heading to the Bahamas for a historic dive into one of the world’s deepest ocean sinkholes.
OceanGate was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein, but Söhnlein eventually left to create his own company, Blue Marble Exploration, four years later.
Rush was one of the five people to have sadly lost their lives last year after an OceanGate sub that set out to look at the wreckage of the Titanic imploded.
Now Söhnlein is planning on diving into the third deepest ocean sinkhole in the world – Dean’s Blue Hole.
The hole, which is hailed as an ‘enigma for geologists’, formed more than 15,000 years ago but very little is known about it.
Located in the Bahamas, the sinkhole is 202 meters deep and is ‘virtually unexplored’, according to the company.
As to why it has seldom been explored is down to its extremely remote location that’s difficult to travel to. It sits in a bay west of Clarence Town on Long Island.
As well as this, Dean’s Blue Hole has a vase-like configuration meaning that it’s narrow at the top and leads to a larger chamber below.
Dean’s Blue Hole can be found in The Bahamas. (Matt Porteous/Getty)
Söhnlein himself will be going on the dive and will be accompanied by scientist Kenny Broad and chief medical officer and former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, New York Post reports.
It hasn’t been reported when the dive will be taking place.
The team will have a series of obstacles that they’ll have to tackle to achieve their goal of reaching the bottom of the sinkhole; one being currents and thermal layers.
“Geologists believe there may be openings along the walls of the main chamber that connect Dean’s to the Atlantic Ocean,” the website explains. “This can potentially cause unforeseen currents and thermal layers that could interfere with underwater operations.”
Elsewhere there’s Dean’s Blue Hole’s pressure and visibility issues. The three-man team will endure extreme pressure the further down the sinkhole they get and will hit highs of 300 pounds per square inch (around 20 times as much as you’d experience on the surface).
The huge sinkhole is yet to be properly explored. (Adri B Freitas Brandao/Getty)
There’s also limited services nearby to where Dean’s Blue Hole, meaning they may struggle to get help if they get into any difficulties.
Then there’s what actually lurks beneath the sinkhole’s surface.
“Locals believe that Dean’s is a portal to hell and the Devil himself lurks in the black depths,” says the company.
“Each year, several people drown in Dean’s due to a variety of misfortunes. We fully expect to find human remains and prepare to handle those situations with proper respect for the families.”
It’s estimated that between 130 to 200 divers have died in the sinkhole’s waters in recent years.
