how many dives in a scientific diving course

by Albina Bode 10 min read

There is a higher level of training and proficiency required for scientific divers than for most recreational divers. You must participate in an AAUS-sponsored training course with a minimum of 100 hours of training, including 12 required training dives.

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Full Answer

What is the scientific diver course?

Have passed the GUE Recreational Diver Level 1 course or the GUE Fundamentals course. Have a minimum of 25 logged dives beyond GUE certification. For a full list of course prerequisites, click here . The Scientific Diver course is normally conducted over five days.

What are the conditions under which scientific diving might occur?

This is a course that could take less than a week if it were done intensively (all day/every day) but more frequently takes 1-2 months of weekly meetings for both classroom and confined water (generally in a swimming pool) sessions, and wraps up with 4-6 open-water dives.

What is the Code of practice for scientific diving?

Diving Safety Officer / Three Seas Program Manager. [email protected]. 617-373-2068. 430 Nahant Rd. Nahant, MA, 01980. Erin Sayre. Assistant Diving Safety Officer / Three Seas Program Field Operations Specialist. [email protected]. 617-373-2136.

Do you need a science degree to become a scuba diver?

PADI training includes practice "mini dives" to help you build confidence in your new abilities before making four dives in open water. Prerequisites: Able to swim; medically fit for diving. Total time commitment: 4-7 days. Minimum age: 10 years or older. Depth: expect shallow dives (12m/40ft), the maximum allowed depth is 18m/60ft.

How many dives does the average diver have?

Most divers average less than eight dives per year, but some total several thousand dives over a few decades and continue diving into their 60s and 70s, occasionally older. Recreational divers may frequent local dive sites or dive as tourists at more distant venues known for desirable underwater environments.

How many dives does it take to be a dive master?

We already know we need a minimum of 40 dives to start a Divemaster course. One of the performance requirements prior to an individual being certified is to have a minimum of 60 dives upon.

How many dives do you need for advanced diver?

five PADI Adventure
The Advanced course takes a minimum of two days and consists of five PADI Adventure dives. PADI offers many types of Adventure Dives to choose from. Underwater Navigation and Deep Dive are required, giving you three more Adventure Dives that you can choose.Dec 8, 2016

How many scientific divers are there?

As of 2005 there were an estimated 4000 scientific divers, of which a small number are career scientific divers, with an average age of around 40 years, and a larger number of students in the 18 to 34 year age group. There is no specific upper age limit providing the diver remains medically fit to dive.

How much do divemasters get paid?

Some Dive Instructors make as low as US$500/month while others can make US$4000-US$6000/month and others will make anything in between. A scuba diving instructor salary and how much a diving instructor can make, depends on a few important factors.

How long does Divemaster course take?

between six weeks and six months
PADI Divemaster

You must have at least 40 dives to begin the Divemaster course, and reach 60 to achieve the certification. The number of dives needed to complete the course means it can take anywhere between six weeks and six months to attain the certification.
Mar 9, 2022

What is the golden rule of scuba diving?

As you complete your confined water dives, remember these two golden rules. Know how much gas you have at all times. Never hold your breath while scuba diving.

How many dives do you need for open water?

Open Water Dives

After your confined water dives, you'll head to open water, where you and your instructor will make four dives, usually over two days. On these dives you'll get to explore the underwater world.

What is considered an advanced diver?

The depths listed above are the maximum depth, your dive may be shallower. A deep dive is considered anything below 18 metres/60 feet. Put another way, a dive to just 19 metres/62 feet qualifies as a deep dive. The PADI Advanced Open Water course is like a specialty sampler platter.

How do I become a scientific diver?

You must participate in an AAUS-sponsored training course with a minimum of 100 hours of training, including 12 required training dives. You also need a valid application form, medical approval, and proof of CPR, First Aid, and Oxygen Administration certifications.

Do you need a degree to be a scientific diver?

AAUS standards require a minimum of 100 hours of theoretical and practical training. These may be achieved through a scientific diver course, a combination of a scientific diving course and advanced recreational dive training, or through extensive recreational dive training.

Where do scientific divers work?

The majority of commercial divers work on construction, demolition or water transportation projects. A small percentage of commercial divers work on scientific projects sponsored by historical sites, museums, environmental organizations or under sea exploration companies.

How deep can you dive with an open water certification?

With a basic Open Water certification, you may dive to a depth of 60’/20m and you can rent gear and fill tanks. After that, the next step is the Advanced Open Water certification. The Advanced certification builds on a beginner’s skills by adding in different types of diving such as night diving and deep diving.

What is an advanced certification?

The Advanced certification builds on a beginner’s skills by adding in different types of diving such as night diving and deep diving. There is generally no confined water component to an Advanced certification course and it’s often shorter in duration (and usually less expensive) than the initial Open Water course.

Can gloves be wet?

Gloves (can be wet or dry if attached to a dry suit. If wet, at least 5mm is highly recommended) Hood (there are different styles of hoods for use with a wet suit vs. a dry suit) Suit (wet or dry. If wet, needs to be 7mm, either 1 piece or 2 piece. If dry, some extra instruction will be required)

Who is the owner of Underdawgs?

The Underdawgs are an informal recreational SCUBA club founded by UW undergrads in 1973. Craig Gillespie, the owner of Seattle SCUBA School , was one of its founders. To this day, he offers Underdawgs 20% discount off tuition on classes and 50% off rental gear for as long as they are in school and associated with the club.

What is scientific diving?

Scientific diving is any diving undertaken in the support of science, so activities are widely varied and may include visual counts and measurements of organisms in situ, collection of samples, surveys, photography, videography, video mosaicing, benthic coring, coral coring, placement, maintenance and retrieval of scientific equipment.

Is scientific diving a professional operation?

When a scientific diving operation is part of the duties of the diver as an employee, the operation may be considered a professional diving operation subject to regulation as such. In these cases the training and registration may follow the same requirements as for other professional divers, or may include training standards specifically intended for scientific diving. In other cases, where the divers are in full control of their own diving operation, including planning and safety, diving as volunteers, the occupational health and safety regulations may not apply.

How does diving help scientists?

Underwater diving interventions, particularly on scuba, provide the capacity for scientists to make direct observations on site and in real time, which allow for ground-truthing of larger scale observations and occasional serendipitous observations outside the planned experiment. Human dexterity remains less expensive and more adaptable to unexpected complexities in experimental setup than remotely operated and robotic alternatives in the shallower depth ranges. Scuba has also provided insights which would be unlikely to occur without direct observation, where hypotheses produced by deductive reasoning have not predicted interactive and behavioural characteristics of marine organisms, and these would not be likely to be detected from remote sensing or video or other methods which do not provide the full context and detail available to the diver. Scuba allows the scientist to set up the experiment and be present to observe unforeseen alternatives to the hypothesis.

Why is diving important?

Sampling: Diving is highly selective and useful for sampling delicate materials or organisms, and for collecting from specific locations or associations, it can be more efficient than sampling methods relying on chance, and can be cost-effective compared with the use of research vessels. In some cases there is no other way to gain access to the specimen, or the specimen must be actively searched for and visually identified, before extracting it from a complex environment without damage. Diving can produce higher quality samples with less collateral damage. Specimen collection of animals is more prevalent, but algal specimen and sediment core collection by diver can produce better quality samples in many cases.

What is the study of freshwater ecosystems?

Freshwater biology – The scientific study of freshwater ecosystems and biology. Hydrology – The science of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets. Limnology – The science of inland aquatic ecosystems. Marine biology – The scientific study of organisms that live in the ocean.

What is citizen science?

Several citizen science projects use observational input from recreational divers to provide reliable data on presence and distribution of marine organisms. The ready availability of digital underwater cameras makes collection of such observations easy and the permanence of the record allows peer and expert review. Such projects include the Australian-based Reef Life Survey, and the more international iNaturalist project, based in California, which is only partly focused on marine species.

What is natural navigation?

Natural navigation, sometimes known as pilotage, involves orienting by naturally observable phenomena, such as sunlight, water movement, bottom composition (for example, sand ripples run parallel to the direction of the wave front, which tends to run parallel to the shore), bottom contour and noise.

What are the medical requirements for scuba diving?

More Info. Medical Requirements. Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.

Does a PADI certification expire?

Your PADI certification never expires, but after a long period of inactivity, you may want to brush up on diving fundamentals and safety procedures. Contact your PADI Dive Center or Resort for more information.

Facts and Training Standards

Join the SSI Science of Diving specialty and you will develop a complete understanding of the underwater world and its effects on the human body.

Become a Professional

Continue your career by becoming a Divemaster and qualify further as an Assistant Instructor. Alternatively, combine your training by joining an Assistant Instructor and Instructor Training Course (ITC) to graduate as an Open Water Instructor now.

Learn how to dive with SSI

Scuba Schools International (SSI) is the largest professional business-based training agency in the world. Established in 1970, today we represent more than 3,300 training centers and resorts in over 130 countries, with more than 50,000 affiliated SSI Professionals and growing every day.

Featured Destinations ideal for Advanced Scuba Training

Have you discovered MyDiveGuide? The world’s largest dive site database, MyDiveGuide connects you to more than 10,000 dive sites, including exciting specialist dives ideal for your training level. Check out our featured destinations for inspiration and combine your next dive vacation with SSI advanced training.

What is technical diving?

Technical Diving allows you to extend your diving beyond recreational “no stop” limits. This allows you to plan longer dives at shallower depths, or to plan dives to more advanced depths and locations. Technical (tec) diving allows you to greatly expand your diving skills and knowledge and can provide you with experiences ...

What is sidemount diving?

Some recreational and tec divers use sidemount, which repositions the cylinders along your sides under your arms. Sidemount has several advantages including easy cylinder donning and removal, a lower profile (often useful in activities like cave diving) and less need to wear tanks out of the water.

Why are rebreathers used?

Simply put - rebreathers help save and recycle your gas, which allows you to stay much longer underwater. Rebreathers are quiet, so you can get closer to wildlife, and they optimize the oxygen/nitrogen you're breathing. Taking advantage of these benefits requires special training in using these technologies, and each rebreather model has its own special requirements.

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Scientific Diver-In-Training Courses

  • Scientific Diver-in-Training, commonly referred to as a DIT, is the beginning point for most scientific divers. Generally, a DIT is also a scientist, or scientist-in-training. The training process for a DIT to become a scientific diver is extensive, at least 100 hours minimum. For a complete breakdown of requirements, check the LUMCON Diving Safety...
See more on lumcon.edu

Continuing Education Certifications

  • Recreational based scuba courses are offered by request to meet specific research goal or proficiency requirements such as deep diving, dry suit diving for cold water work, night diving, etc. Courses may be customized as much as is possible to meet requirements both to issue a recreational certification and for research needs. When conducting Continuing Education Certifi…
See more on lumcon.edu

Technical Diving Training and Certification

  • Technical diving training and certification is offered through LUMCOM by special request. All requests will be reviewed by the LUMCON Diving Safety Committee prior to approval and researchers must be prepared to offer written justification to both the LUMCON DSC and their parent institution Risk Managers and/or Director of Environmental Health and Safety, why techni…
See more on lumcon.edu

Overview

Scientific diving is the use of underwater divingtechniques by scientists to perform work underwater in the direct pursuit of scientific knowledge. The legal definition of scientific diving varies by jurisdiction. Scientific divers are normally qualified scientists first and divers second, who use diving equipment and techniques as their way to get to the location of their fieldwork. The direct obs…

Scope of work

Scientific diving is any diving undertaken in the support of science, so activities are widely varied and may include visual counts and measurements of organisms in situ, collection of samples, surveys, photography, videography, video mosaicing, benthic coring, coral coring, placement, maintenance and retrieval of scientific equipment.
The importance of diving to the scientific community is not well recorded. A bibliographic analys…

History

Scientific diving has a history that dates back to early modern times.
The first recorded U.S. scientific diver was Dr. William H. Longley, starting in 1910, and who made the first underwater colour photograph with National Geographic staff photographer Charles Martin in 1926 off the Florida Keys in the Gulf of Mexico.
By the middle of the 20th century scientific diving was being done around the U.S. in surface sup…

Management and control of scientific diving operations

Scientific diving operations which are part of the work of an organisation are generally under the control of a diving supervisor or equivalent, and follow procedures similar to other professional diving operations.
A scientific diving operation that follows the usual procedures of a commercial scuba operation will include one or more working divers, a stand-by diverand a supervisor, who will manage the o…

Standard and emergency diving procedures

The standard procedures for scuba and surface-supplied diving are essentially the same as for any other similar diving operation using similar equipment in a similar environment, by both recreational, technical and other professional divers. There are a few special cases where scientific diving operations are carried out in places where other divers would generally not go, such as blue-water diving. Scientific dives tend to be more task oriented than recreational dives, …

Working procedures common to scientific diving

The requirements for qualification as a scientific diver vary with jurisdiction. The European Scientific Diver (ESD) standard is reasonably representative:
Competence in work methods common to scientific projects:
• Diver navigation methods.
• Underwater search methods.

Risk and safety

Generally, scientific diving has a history of relatively low risk and good safety record overall, the vast majority of dives are relatively shallow and in reasonably good conditions. Most scientific dives can be deferred when conditions are sub-optimal, and seldom require the use of dangerous equipment. This has allowed a good safety record in spite of relatively relaxed equipment and training requirements for occupational diving.

Demographics

In the United States scientific diving is done by research institutions, universities, museums, aquaria, and consulting companies for purposes of research, education and environmental monitoring. As of 2005 there were an estimated 4000 scientific divers, of which a small number are career scientific divers, with an average age of around 40 years, and a larger number of students in the 18 to 34 year age group. There is no specific upper age limit providing the diver r…