Michał Marek (20 January 1983 – 12 May 2019) was a Polish

cave diver Cave-diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. It may be done as an extreme sport, a way of exploring flooded caves for scientific investigation, or for the search for and recovery of divers or, as in the 2018 Thai cave rescue, other ...

who spent his last years in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

.He held the record for the deepest cave dive in Ireland at a depth of .

Life and speleological career

Marek was born in

Krosno Krosno (in full ''The Royal Free City of Krosno'', ) is a historical town and Krosno County, county in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland. The estimated population of the town is 47,140 inhabitants as of 2014. The functional ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1983, and began open-water diving in 2002 in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Moving to Ireland in 2004, he settled in

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

and subsequently became a qualified technical diver. In 2010 Marek met cave diver Artur Kozłowski, who introduced him to the idea of cave diving and exploration. Kozłowski, among other achievements, had set the British and Irish cave diving depth record of in

Pollatoomary Pollatoomary is the deepest explored underwater cave in Ireland. It has been explored to an underwater depth of . The explored limit of Pollatoomary is also deeper underwater than that of the terminal sump in Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset, Eng ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

, in 2008. Over subsequent years, Marek developed his

caving Caving, also known as spelunking (United States and Canada) and potholing (United Kingdom and Ireland), is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is the scientific ...

and cave diving skills, and accomplished much in exploration. In 2012, while on a coastal dive at Ailladie, near Fanore,

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

, he discovered the entrance to Cliff Cave. With other cave divers, he spent the following months and years exploring the underwater cave to over in length, making it the longest marine cave in Ireland. Marek visited Pollatoomary in 2018, and continued on from Artur Kozłowski's previous limit of exploration. He extended this to , to set a new Irish cave diving depth record. In addition to his speleological work, Marek joined the Irish Cave Rescue Organisation in 2014 and became a core team member in 2015. Marek died on 12 May 2019 at the age of 36, while on an open-water dive on the wreck of the SS ''Athenia'', off

Malin Head Malin Head () is the Extreme points of Ireland, most northerly point of mainland Ireland, located in the townland of Ardmalin on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal. The head's northernmost point is called Dunalderagh at latitude 55.38ºN ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

References

2019 deaths Cave diving explorers Polish explorers Polish underwater divers Speleologists Underwater diving deaths 21st-century Polish sportsmen Pioneering technical divers 1983 births Polish emigrants to Ireland People from Krosno {{underwater-diving-bio-stub