\u201c\u2026diving performed solely as a necessary part of a scientific activity by employees whose sole purpose for diving is to perform scientific research tasks.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Nick Tolimieri {credit}Image credit: NOAA{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n So, if you\u2019re taking equipment down, inspecting any equipment or doing any diving that doesn\u2019t have any science in it, this isn\u2019t considered scientific diving. Scientific diving, according to Nick Tolimieri, a research fishery biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)<\/a> Northwest Fisheries Science Center<\/a> in Seattle, WA, is \u201cdata collection under water.\u201d<\/p>\n There are a group of standard skills, according to Tolimieri, that every scientific diver will need to have. \u201cUsing quadrats and transects to measure percentage cover of a certain species on a reef are the most common experiments that we do,\u201d he says. The quadrats can be a quarter-meter squared, which you distribute randomly across a reef and then count what\u2019s in them, for example. Or you might use transects \u2013 where you\u2019re laying out 20-50m long lines \u2013 to count fish. \u201cThese are the main science skills. But it\u2019s more about being comfortable enough underwater to collect data in whatever way you need to,\u201d he says. The most important skill a scientific diver can have, says Tolimeiri, is being able to control your buoyancy under water. \u201cYou can\u2019t be crashing around on a coral reef and it\u2019s hard to do any meaningful work if you\u2019re bouncing up and down and not able to control yourself in open water. If people are thinking about what to practice: that\u2019s it. That\u2019s the most important. Once you\u2019ve got that, learning the skills for experiments underwater is easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Nick has been a scientific diver since 1989, when he spent a semester in the Caribbean working on an undergraduate project. He loved it so much that he stayed on to do a masters and PhD there too. Now that he works at NOAA, he\u2019s doing somewhere between 50-100 dives per year. Depending on where you are based, you\u2019ll do a different number of dives, says Tolimieri. \u201cIt\u2019s dependant on the group you\u2019re with, the research you\u2019re doing and ultimately the climate too. Divers in Florida and California will do many more dives than those on the north east coast.\u201d<\/p>\n Liz Bentley Magee diving with Sylvia, the habitat’s resident Goliath Grouper{credit}Image credit: Matt Ferraro{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n Liz Bentley Magee has recently experienced one of the deepest underwater laboratories at the\u00a0Aquarius Reef Base<\/a>,\u00a060 ft underwater in Florida. \u201cIt was amazing. Easily the best experience of my life.\u201d Bentley Magee, a professional scientific diver and science diving teacher at Northeastern University\u2019s Three Seas Programme<\/a>, spent a total of 2 weeks in the pressurised habitat, diving for a total of 9 hours per day as part of Mission 31<\/a>. \u201cIn our two weeks underwater we ended up collecting over two years\u2019 worth of data. It blows my mind!\u201d (She wrote a great blog<\/a> about all her experiences.)<\/p>\n This serious amount of diving is only possible using a technique called saturation diving, in which divers allow their bodies to become saturated with nitrogen (and other) gas and live underwater in a pressurised habitat, reducing the risk of getting \u201cthe bends\u201d.<\/p>\n Mission 31 was initiated by Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of diving hero Jacques Cousteau. The Mission hosted four research projects that were run by graduate and postgraduate researchers. \u201cAll the research was related to the impact of human activity on the coral reefs,\u201d says Brian Helmuth, one of the scientists involved in the mission. \u201cIn one of the experiments we wanted to see how physiology of sponges adapts to changing temperatures and whether we can predict how future changes in temperature will affect their health\u201d Other students were exploring what plankton and other main food sources were up to at night; how corals respire; and how corals take up chemicals from the environment.<\/p>\n The initial experimental design all happens above water and well in advance, but scientific divers like Bentley Magee get involved in the research too. \u201cWhen it came to the reality of the experiment, when we could see what was and wasn’t doable, we got involved and helped adapt what was needed to get the research done in time,\u201d she says. \u201cSo it was an on-the-job, on-the-spot involvement that would impact the experimental design. It\u2019s a great opportunity to use problem solving skills in a way you wouldn\u2019t otherwise have the opportunity to do.\u201d<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just the full-time scientific divers doing all the hard work. \u201cThe researchers did a couple of hour-long dives every day, collecting any data and results that we couldn\u2019t,\u201d says Bentley Magee. \u201cThe problem with surface diving is that you\u2019re limited to about 60 minute dives at the depths we were at (approximately 60 ft). So whilst they were doing two hour-long dives, I was out there for a three or four hour-long dive, continuing what they started and we\u2019d work together.\u201d<\/p>\n But being a scientific diver isn\u2019t all about the diving. \u201cIt\u2019s a big part of it, but I spend most of my time on land,\u201d says Tolimieri.\u00a0When Bentley Magee worked for UC Santa Barbara as a science diver\/technician she would dive every day for half of the year, \u201cbut the rest of the time I spent analysing the data and maintaining the equipment. Prepping for the next big field season.\u201d Analysing data is a big part of being a scientific diver, but like many marine biology researchers, they do get to spend some time in the environment they study.<\/span><\/p>\n To work at NOAA, an MSc in marine sciences\/biology\/environmental science will put you in good stead. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to have any diving under your belt because they can train you here. But it does help.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>The scientific diver community is small, says Bentley Magee, but that\u2019s because \u201cyou need to be doing science underwater to become a scientific diver. With that, it\u2019s hard to get certifications to begin with,\u201d she says. Her advice, and that of Tolimieri\u2019s, is to start enrolling in classes that require you to become a diver where you complete projects that need underwater data collection. \u201cYou need to be enrolled in classes that require you to be a scientific diver or going to school and doing a project that requires you to be u\/w to collect data,\u201d says Bentley Magee. \u201cThere is so much more to explore in the oceans and we have so much more to learn. By getting more divers we can learn a lot more!\u201d<\/p>\n Related reading:<\/em><\/p>\n Ocean biology: Marine dreams<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marine biology is the study of underwater animal and plant life from the microscopic plankton to the blue whale. To understand the behaviours that these underwater creatures exhibit, scientists need to spend some time in their environment. Setting up experiments and running them underwater isn\u2019t as simple as setting one up in a lab or out in the woods. Being underwater for any considerable period of time is not what humans are built for. So how do these scientists get their experiments done? Read more<\/a> Continue reading ![\"Nick-Tolimieri-NOAA\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/files\/2014\/12\/Nick-Tolimieri-NOAA-225x300.jpg\" "\\"Nick-Tolimieri-NOAA\\"")
<\/a>![\"Liz_Sylvia\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/files\/2014\/12\/Liz_Sylvia-300x158.jpg\" "\\"Liz_Sylvia\\"")
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