AAUS Certification Program is currently undergoing review and renovation. Please contact the AAUS office for more information or stay tuned for updates in early 2022.
In the years since, the AAUS has expanded from the original six organizational members to more than 130 organizational members and over 1100 individual members.
1) What are the requirements to become an AAUS Scientific Diver? AAUS requires scientific divers to have a higher level of training and proficiency than most recreational divers. Participation in an AAUS-sponsored Scientific Diver training course with minimum of 100 hours of cumulative training including 12 training dives is required.
In order to be fully certified as an AAUS/SDSU scientific diver, already certified divers must complete a check-out open water scuba dive with the DSO and at least 11 additional dives under the direction of the DSO or a delegate for a total of at least 12 open water dives.
NOAA employs oceanographers, fish biologists, engineers, maritime archaeologists, and NOAA Corps Officers that work all over the United States and its territories in oceans and lakes using scuba diving equipment. All diving at NOAA is performed in support of scientific research.
You may work as a volunteer or get paid a respectable wage. In general, a science diver can expect to make between $25,000 and $30,000 U.S. A good place to begin your search for science dive jobs is the American Academy of Underwater Sciences or colleges and universities with a strong program in your science of choice.
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.