Underwater Capsule Takes Deeper Look Into Baltic Sea

There's a futuristic construction at the end of the 315 meter (1,033 feet) long pier in Zinnowitz on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom that looks like a contraption out of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

Slowly 26 people file into the 27-ton metal behemoth with a roughly UFO shape that is balanced on a steel pillar, hoping it's not Captain Nemo who will be taking the wheel in their 45-minute under-the-waves tour of the Baltic Sea.

A trip below the surface

An engineer from the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania town of Wolgast developed the underwater observation station that reaches a maximum depth of about 4.5 meters.

"The diving gondola is unique in the world," its inventor Andreas Wulff said, adding that the idea for a way of sending people on underwater trips came to him while on vacation in the Canary Islands, where visitors can get in small underwater boats for a close-up look at coral and schools of brightly colored fish.

Wulff worked for four years on a way to implement a similar system in the Baltic Sea until he came up with the patented round, compression-proof capsule with plenty of windows and space for 24 visitors and a staff of two. The pod cruises up and down the steel pillar with two 30 horsepower electric engines that must overcome a force of 50 tons to move.

Artificial reef in the planning

The capsule, which was built according to Wulff's plans by an engineering and construction company, was first used in Zinnowitz in July and is equipped with a bright set of spotlights to light up the dark sea.

Despite the lights, there's relatively little the passengers in the pod can see in the cold water. "Mainly large expanses of sand spread themselves out in front of visitors," biologist and co-developer Volker Miske said.

Faced with the likelihood that plenty of sand and the occasional glimpse of flounder or herring wouldn't be enough to keep the crowds paying the seven euro ($8.90) admission time and time again, there are plans to create an artificial stone reef on the sea floor near the pier to provide ideal grounds for local plants and animals to grow, Miske said.

Underwater cinema

A two meter by 2.6 meter screen will also give visitors an impression of what it's like under the surface of the world's oceans. The underwater cinema will explain the formation of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia's coast, sharks' real habits and the ecological dangers the world's oceans face.

"The diving capsule is a facility that is an attraction serving tourism and education at the same time," Miske said.

The capsule in Zinnowitz is also considered a prototype for larger versions that could bring 80 people down as far as 20 meters in the Mediterranean Ocean, the Red Sea or off the coast of Australia.