Porta Westfalica (Global Adventures): Germany has a new underwater highlight – an old mine that is partially flooded and now open for divers. The attraction: scuba divers have to descent 800 meters (2,625 feet) before they even reach the water. The lake is called Blue Lagoon, and is currently only partially explored and operational.

The owner of a local dive shop in Porta Westfalica discovered that portions of the flooded mine are divable. With the help of friends, guidelines were laid and currently unsafe or unexplored tunnels and sections sealed off. After a German TV station documented the efforts, the dive shop received the necessary permits to allow diving in the lake deep under the surface of the earth.

Only a small portion of the Blue Lagoon is currently open to scuba divers. The dive is considered a cavern dive, since the exit to the air-filled portion of the mine is illuminated and always visible. The diving is limited to a depth of approximately 15 meters (49 feet).

However, the dive shop hopes to open deeper sections in 2010. If everything goes according to plan, divers that hold a full cave diving certification may soon be able to explore the rest of the mine, which has been explored to 80 meters (262 feet), which means it is clearly Trimix-territory.

More info (currently only in German) is available here.

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