The BioSUB Project: Lloyd Submerges for the first time
In 2005 Lloyd Godson won the Wildest Adventure Competition run by the Australian Geographic magazine. With his 'Live your Dream sponsorship prize of $50,000, he started The BioSUB Project in 2007. In eighteen months he independently built an underwater habitat from old steel, lowered it into an Australian lake and lived self-sufficiently inside for twelve days.
Lloyd "lived his dream" in the steel house alone — apart from occasional visits from a turtle and a few helpers. A stay that involved rather special conditions. "I had 100 % air humidity," explains Lloyd. "The water dripped from the ceiling. My clothes just wouldn't dry." However, the humidity was not at all as threatening as the constantly rising CO2 levels in the air. Although he used algae in a bioreactor to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, the CO2 level rose continuously. The result: Lloyd slept more often, his blood pressure rose to unexpectedly high levels and towards the end he was psychologically at breaking point. Instead of being exhilarated at living in the depths he was beginning to crack. In the end it was the CO2 level that could no longer be lowered that forced him to abandon his experiment after twelve days.
However, hardly had Lloyd recovered from the strains of The BioSUB Project, he was already enthusing about how great and exciting it was to be living underwater. He received thousands of emails during his time in the lake and many curious visitors stopped by at the base station on the bank, and even entire school classes came to have a look. Although his underwater stay had to be stopped prematurely, it was still a complete success for Lloyd — if nothing at all because the studied marine biologist was able to bring so many people closer to this fascinating underwater world and his dream of living there.
The international media covered Lloyd’s experiment extensively, with stories appearing on Discovery Channel Canada’s Daily Planet science programme and the front page of The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom. Lloyd went on to receive the Powerhouse Museum Wizard of the Year highly commendable award and was a 2008 Albury Citizen of the Year nominee. The BioSUB is now on display at the Aquatic Environment Education Centre at Wonga Wetlands.
Lloyd "lived his dream" in the steel house alone — apart from occasional visits from a turtle and a few helpers. A stay that involved rather special conditions. "I had 100 % air humidity," explains Lloyd. "The water dripped from the ceiling. My clothes just wouldn't dry." However, the humidity was not at all as threatening as the constantly rising CO2 levels in the air. Although he used algae in a bioreactor to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, the CO2 level rose continuously. The result: Lloyd slept more often, his blood pressure rose to unexpectedly high levels and towards the end he was psychologically at breaking point. Instead of being exhilarated at living in the depths he was beginning to crack. In the end it was the CO2 level that could no longer be lowered that forced him to abandon his experiment after twelve days.
However, hardly had Lloyd recovered from the strains of The BioSUB Project, he was already enthusing about how great and exciting it was to be living underwater. He received thousands of emails during his time in the lake and many curious visitors stopped by at the base station on the bank, and even entire school classes came to have a look. Although his underwater stay had to be stopped prematurely, it was still a complete success for Lloyd — if nothing at all because the studied marine biologist was able to bring so many people closer to this fascinating underwater world and his dream of living there.
The international media covered Lloyd’s experiment extensively, with stories appearing on Discovery Channel Canada’s Daily Planet science programme and the front page of The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom. Lloyd went on to receive the Powerhouse Museum Wizard of the Year highly commendable award and was a 2008 Albury Citizen of the Year nominee. The BioSUB is now on display at the Aquatic Environment Education Centre at Wonga Wetlands.
