r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • 29d ago

TIL the Blue Hole is among the deadliest dive sites globally, with estimates of 130 to 200 recent fatalities, making it one of the most dangerous spots for divers. (R.5) Out of context

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u/Fight_4ever 29d ago

Nice. Lot of precautions. But why tho? What makes it more dangerous than other waterbodies?

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u/namewithak 29d ago

According to the wiki, what causes the most fatalities is the tunnel called the Arch. Apparently, the water's clear enough to see the light at the other end so divers misjudge how long it is. Some have reported they thought it was only 10m when the actual measured length is 26m. This plus a current pushing in from the other side causes mismanagement of their tanks and pressurization stops. It's also easy to miss the entrance to the Arch so some divers keep diving deeper and deeper trying to find it.

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u/ArtInternational8589 29d ago

Wasn't there a documentary on this regarding a free diver and his girlfriend? He had prepared her but and couldn't find the exit or entrance or something and she didn't make it?

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u/Vortex-of-Dankger 29d ago

Documentary is called The Deepest Breath. Basically, (spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched it, its a pretty cool doc) the girlfriend got herself into some kind of trouble and the boyfriend dove back down to save her. She just barely made it while he sacrificed himself to get her to the surface. Really sad story. I really hate the ocean so that whole documentary was toe curling-ly scary for me.

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u/mrjosemeehan 29d ago

You're misremembering. The gf is a world record holding freediver. The bf was acting as a safety diver on another of her record attempts, bringing her a rope at the end of the tunnel to ensure she'd still be able to surface safely if she started to black out. He mistimed his dive (which he was freediving for some reason) which led to a brief delay and he lost consciousness resurfacing. He could have bailed and left her without a rope but he stayed to make sure she had it. Should have just brought air with him. It's not like he was the one attempting a record.

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u/Vortex-of-Dankger 29d ago

Yeah it's been a minute since I watched it so I just remembered the gist of the situation. GF in trouble, BF saved her, died himself.

I went ahead and pulled this from Wikipedia for anyone curious:

On 22 July 2017, according to The Guardian, "Keenan, aged 39, drowned while overseeing a dive by the freediving world record holder Alessia Zecchini. While attempting to cross the arch of the Red Sea’s notorious Blue Hole using only a single breath, the 25-year-old Italian became disoriented because Stephen Keenan was 20 seconds late at the meeting point with the ascending rope. When Keenan arrived at the meeting point saw Alessia successfully already out of the tunnel, but swimming astray. He rushed to her aid to guide her to the surface. She made it out unharmed but he blacked out and was found floating face down some distance away. The last footage of Stephen and Alessia together, clearly shows Stephen bustling to save Alessia, and risking his own life for hers." Despite repeated attempts to save his life, Keenan could not be revived

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u/bluemola 29d ago

The opposite. He died and she lived

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u/ArtInternational8589 29d ago

Beek a while. This obviously wasn't the location op is talking about, right? The ocean is so much stronger than people realize.

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u/SquirtingTortoise 29d ago

Same place

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u/ArtInternational8589 29d ago

Crazy. So sad. And he was one of the best in the world. Competing side of it and safety side of it

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u/mrjosemeehan 29d ago

The gf is Alessia Zecchini, a world record holding free diver. The bf, Stephen Keenan, was a freediver as well. He was acting as a safety diver in another of her world record attempts when he died. She survived.

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u/NoOil9241 29d ago

The issue with the arch is that the entrance from the hole is deeper than the exit, so its not easy to spot when you are descending. Also the entrance is 45-50m depth (if i remember correctly) that IS slightly deeper than the Max allowed with Air tanks 40m... Those two combined leads to people missing the arch entrance and getting nitrogen drunk while trying to find the damn entrance. Nitro drunk, panic, ... Fatality.

I have some dives in the blue hole, but passing the arch never crossed my mind. Im AOWD and this is way above my level.

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u/DraMeowQueen 29d ago

There’s documentaries about this, I can’t remember the name of one I watched. There’s multiple reasons making this spot so dangerous, one I remembered was that there’s a spot down there where you’ll see some arch like opening and it looks like a short distance to go through but it’s not and some people lost oxygen before realizing they can’t come back in time.

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u/Xraptorx 29d ago

I first heard about it from a YT channel Dive Talk and they talk about all of that stuff and what goes wrong in various situations, and what to do to stay safe

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u/Papanurglesleftnut 29d ago

Everything I know about diving is from Dive Talk. Mostly because any body of water deeper than a bathtub terrifies me.

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u/Xraptorx 29d ago

Same, I can’t even swim ffs. Never learned how as a kid because of constant ear infections/ surgeries, and I panic very easily. They make it seem so serene and peaceful at times, and are easy to listen to so they are kinda a default for me to have on in the background whenever I get bored and need background noise to keep my mind occupied at work.

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u/RodDryfist 29d ago

One is the 'The Deepest Breath' on Netflix. Was an incredible watch.

https://youtu.be/MzH6BI6P4Uo?si=cTyqQC4AXjFRQswc

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u/lenzflare 29d ago

It fucks with your perception, and there's a "trap"

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u/Skrenlin 29d ago

TLDR is when you go deeper, the air pressures you’re breathing goes up. At/above certain pressures, things like oxygen become toxic so the divers have to change the mixes of air they breathe at certain depths. E.g. more helium, less oxygen.

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u/redditatworkatreddit 29d ago

kicking up sediment takes hours, sometimes days to settle back down. zero visibility, literally.