West Edmonton Mall’s submarine fleet set for recovery

Abandoned for seven years at the bottom of an Edmonton water body, four submarines are finally being retrieved.

And while it sounds like the beginning of a terrible spy novel, the subs in question actually belong to the West Edmonton Mall where they spent two decades conveying passengers underwater as part of the shopping mecca's Deep Sea Adventure Lake.

The 20-minute submarine rides kicked off in 1985 after phase 3 of the mall opened. But as spokesperson Sheri Clegg told Global TV Edmonton, mall brass decided to sink the attraction in 2005.

"We're all about providing unique and memorable experiences and, truly, after you'd been on the submarine probably once, there really wasn't anything different for another ride," she said.

Vancouver's All-Sea Enterprises has been summoned to remove and dismantle the subs. Each 38-tonne vessel will be cut up and moved out of the mall via crane, after which the scraps will be recycled.

The entire job is estimated to take about a month, at a week per submarine.

"Just for the main body of the sub, about 5 days. To strip the inside it takes us a day and then if we're going to cut up the lead then it'll take us another 8 days," service engineer Matt Bone explained to the network.

After the material (mostly lead and aluminum) has been sliced and diced with hydraulic saws, a team of four divers will work in three-hour rotations under water. Bone said the job should be a breeze for the seasoned pros.

"It's not freezing cold, you don't have the wind, you don't have the ocean, you don't have the tides, you don't have the current, you don't have any of those issues to deal with," he said adding, "You can't get any better conditions! You can have coffee, you can go buy underwear, you can do whatever you want, so that part of it is really nice."

But despite the calm conditions, uncertainties about the submarines' design add a slight challenge to the task.

"Some of it's a guessing game so you have to do exploratory cutting to see what you're up against, so the first sub is going to take about 50 percent longer than the others will," he said.

Meanwhile, Clegg said the mall is exploring new options for the lake, but following the lead of all good spy novels, she refused to divulge any secrets.