Scientific Diving & Underwater Photography


 

OSHA Guidelines for Scientific Diving

Scientific diving is defined by OSHA (29 CFR 1910.401(a)(2)(iv) and subpart T, app.B) and AAUS (section 1.12 & 1.13) as: "Diving performed solely as a necessary part of a scientific, research or educational activity by employees whose sole purpose for diving is to perform scientific research tasks."

Scientific Diving is under the direction and control of a diving program containing at least the following:

 
A. Diving Safety Manual which includes at a minimum: Procedures covering all diving operations specific to the program; procedures for emergency care, including recompression and evacuation; and criteria for diver training and certification.

B. Diving Control (Safety) Board, with the majority of its members being active Scientific Divers, and which shall at a minimum have the authority to:
 


C.  The purpose of the project using scientific diving is the advancement of science; therefore information and data resulting from the project are non-proprietary.

D.  The tasks of a scientific diver are those of an observer and data gatherer.  Construction and trouble-shooting tasks traditionally associated with commercial diving are not included within scientific diving.

E.  Scientific divers, based on the nature of their activities, must use scientific expertise in studying the underwater environment and, therefore, are scientists or scientists in training first, and divers second.

F. "Diver" is defined as an employee working in water using underwater apparatus which supplies compressed breathing gas at the ambient pressure.

 

Certifying Agencies

Scientific Diving

Diving Publications

Underwater Photography

SCUBA Equipment Mail Order Houses

 

INDUSTRY GRIPE

In an effort to protect the huge profits that are made on the sale of underwater diving equipment (a currently legal, semantic loophole around the otherwise lillegal practice of price-fixing), most of the major diving manufacturers will not allow their products to be sold via mail order.  This "policy" of course, requires you to subject yourself to the sales pitches and product redirection techniques employed by "professional" retail salemen, many of whom were probably selling shoes or flipping burgers at Burger King last year and who were probably still swimming in a blow-up pool when you were already working underwater.  If a mail-order distributor is caught selling high-end Scubapro or Aqualung products via mailorder, for example, their lucrative distributor's license will be pulled.

These manufacturers are in effect saying that you cannot be entrusted with exersizing your own knowledge in selecting such "dangerous" diving equipment as a bouyancy compensator without first receiving "professional" assistance.  Likewise, the price that you pay for this equipment will also include all of the overhead required to keep that "experienced" saleman gainfully employed and the costs of keeping a full retail storefront in operation.  As a result, the following distributors generally only sell "second-tier" diving equipment, so buyer beware!

Of course, you can continue to buy both handguns and prescription pharmaceuticals via mailorder, neither of which the market or our legislators have determined are apparently as dangerous as a polyethylene bag designed to hold some small volume of air at ambient pressure!!

[and the next sounds that you here will be our President stepping down from his soapbox... again]
 

SCUBA Equipment Manufacturers

Dive Travel

Southern Thailand

Solomon Islands

Indonesia

Philippines

United States

General Dive Travel Planning

Regional Weather and Swell Conditions:

Miscellaneous

·         Dr. Edmund Kay's Diving Medicine Web Page

·         Dr. Ernest Campbell's Diving Medicine Online

·         Dr. Fred Bove, Underwater Medicine Associates (UMA)

·         Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (see especially travellers' health section)

·         Diving Diseases Research Centre

·         National Library of Medicine

·         Divers Alert Network (DAN)

·         Marine Weather Worldwide

·         MIT Dive Planning Page

·         NOAA Tide Tables

·         Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)

·         OSHA: About Commercial Diving

·         OSHA Guidelines for Scientific Diving-CFR 29 - 1910 Subpart T

·         Scope and Application of CFR 29 1910 (includes exemption language for scientific diving)

·         Professional Scuba Inspectors Inc.

·         Compressed Gas Association (CGA)

·         Diving Equipment & Marketing Association (DEMA)

·         Zeagle Systems inc

·         Rebreather Manufacturers

·         Best Publishing Company

·         The National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML)

·         National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

·         National Undersea Research Program (NURP)

·         University-National Oceanographic Laboratory Systems (UNOLS)

·         Our World Underwater

·         American Zoo and Aquarium Association

·         Historical Diving Society

·         The Physics Gearbag

·         Diveweb

·         Rick's Scuba Links


Comments, suggestions and constructive criticisms are always welcome. If you know of a SCUBA or Underwater Photography-related site that you think others should be aware of, please send us the URL and we'll review it. If it fits with the intent of this page, we'll immediately add it to our page. Likewise, if you note any errors or lost links, let us know that too, and we'll either fix or delete them as well.
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