New Natural History Museum exhibition shows just how hard it is to be a cave diver

Trustees of the Natural History Museum
Ailis Brennan12 July 2018

In the week the world commended the bravery of individuals who rescued twelve boys and one man from a Thai cave, a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum is shining a spotlight on the work done by cave divers.

Life In The Dark, an exhibition opening tomorrow at the South Kensington museum, explores how different species adapt to living in dark environments.

The exhibition takes a detailed look at the key role of cave divers in the exploration of some of these hard-to-reach habitats.

Professor Geoff Boxshall, a consultant on the exhibition, said that it was “a joy to work with these professionals”.

“If you go deep enough into any cave system, you’re going to come to water. So when we’re researching deep cave animals, we tend to work a lot with cave divers.”

Exhibits include a model of a cave diver, which is shown alongside the guidelines divers use to navigate through cave systems, similar to those used in the Thai rescue of the last two weeks.

"It shows you the importance of the guidelines... they help you in a cave when the sediment gets all scooped up off the bottom, and your bubbles disturb sediment on the roof of the cave, and the visibility just goes to zero."

Boxshall also highlighted how divers need to remove extra air cylinders in order to manoeuvre through tiny gaps in the cave system. “It’s slightly crazy” he said.

The model also show the groundbreaking air recycling systems that Boxshall says allows divers to breathe for up to 10 hours at a time. "It’s opened up some of these really, really dark cave systems to do further exploration,” said Boxshall.

The exhibition also contains films showing cave divers on expeditions, as well as specimens of cave-dwelling animals, including a cave boa and a giant cave cockroach.

Life in the Dark runs at the Natural History Museum from July 13 to January 6 2019. For more information, visit nhm.ac.uk