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Diving the English channel as Guinea Pig for Dolphins

German diver Achim Schlöffel was the first man to dive through the English Channel in June of 2012- and he did it as a guinea pig for whales and dolphins.

The English channel is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic.

It is about 560 km (350 mi) long and varies in width from 240 km (150 mi) at its widest to 33.1 km (20.6 mi) in the Strait of Dover.

It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2 (29,000 sq mi).


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Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia

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[column]The 65 km from Dover to Calais meant eight hours of darkness, cold water and almost unbearable noise in one of the busiest shipping channels in the world.

Why would One do this?

With this dive Achim aimed to support WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservations Society.
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Right after coming out of the water in France he said:

„ Diving in the english channel is not just hard for your conditions. With darkness and this long distance. It is even harder for your EARS! Add the noise level of a landing jet right next to your head, created by ships of all kinds.

Hence, I am happy to be done with this dive. I was able to feel how terribly affected the sensitive acoustic systems of whales and dolphins, who communicate via sonography are . I can can re-assure you that you would not want to experience this for yourself.”

 
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