Exploration Diving

[Akimbo]

Diving where there is a high probability that no human has been before was a common motivation in the early days of the sport. Divers working to make a name for themselves in the recreational dive industry strove to become members of The Explorers Club. Many became professional underwater photographers.

• Does the concept of exploration dives attract you?
• Would you pay a liveaboard charter fee to be on an exploration project?
• Have you been on any underwater exploration projects?
• Any planned?

"Exploration" can be as little as searching for undiscovered dive sites to underwritten science or salvage projects. Let the sea stories begin.

 

[lowwall]

• Would you pay a liveaboard charter fee to be on an exploration project?

If you are leading one, sign me up. Well, warm water anyway.

 

[Akimbo]

If you are leading one, sign me up.

That wasn't my intent, but it wouldn't be too hard to organize. Most any charter would be happy to have a load of paying customers willing to take a chance on finding new dive sites that they can use for new customers. At least in my limited experience, most dives will be lots of work and disappointing but a few will be remembered as a lifetime adventure.

 

[tbone1004]

I am part of an exploration team in Florida as are several other members of this forum, there is still active exploration being done in the caves. The open wate rstuff is getting awfully expensive these days

 

[PfcAJ]

Exploration dives are very attractive, but they’re very fatiguing. Pre and post dive work is a lot. Managing support teams is a lot. Doing the dives is a lot. There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of risk, and there’s a lot of stress during the dive. Financial burden. Time away from home. It’s just a lot and tough to sustain week after week, month after month, year after year.

I’ve spent MANY dives on both sides of the exploration equation, as a support diver and as a member of the exploration team. There’s nothing else like it, and I find it more rewarding than just about anything else, but man is it a lot. I think this has been the challenge for anyone who wants to explore or be a part of exploration. If it was easy, everyone could do it.

But it’s not. It’s ******* hard.

it’s unlikely that I’d pay for a liveaboard unless the project was very unique. There’s certain wrecks I’d be interested in, though.

 

[BRT]

After many years of diving in Puerto Morelos Mexico, this last year we enjoyed diving with a new shop that was interested in checking out new areas. Mostly not as spectacular as the known places, but I really enjoy looking for something new.

 

[Ulfhedinn]

I would love to do something of this nature... If I could get payed. IT would need to be a career type move for me.

If you have ever read any of Theodore Roosevelts books these are the things that gets the blood a welling!

 

[lowwall]

After many years of diving in Puerto Morelos Mexico, this last year we enjoyed diving with a new shop that was interested in checking out new areas. Mostly not as spectacular as the known places, but I really enjoy looking for something new.

What was the shop? It might only be "Exploration Lite", but it sounds like fun.

 

[Searcaigh]

When I lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia back in the 90s, I did quite a bit of easy shore based exploration dives with a bunch of friends.

Back then all we needed was a 4x4 and enough tanks to manage the trips. The Saudi side of the Red Sea was pretty much unspoilt back then and access to most of the coastline was freely available.

The only minor hiccup could be from the coastguard, so we made sure that we had relevant documentation to counter any problems. Carrying sufficient dates and other edibles was always good to have to share when they appeared. When I first moved to Jeddah from Riyadh I was working for the National Guard Hospital and we had our own dive club (BSAC) plus vehicles with the NGH logo, and that made life less complicated.

There is certainly still a lot of unexplored waters out this way in the Middle East, but local politics can be restricting. I'm sure the Iranian coastline in the Gulf of Oman would be worth exploring

 

[BoltSnap]

Here in Libya we have 2000 km of mostly unexplored coastline on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. We have lots of antiquities underwater some of them predate Roman times. The antiquities span all civilizations that existed in the Mediterranean. We have cities from ancient times that are either partially or entirely underwater. One city was discovered in 2010 in 7 meters underwater in western Libya only 200 meters from shore but has never been explored and documented. We have parts of coastal Phoenician ports undocumented underwater. We have wrecks that span all times from civilizations that predate the commonly known ones to WWI, WWII and modern wrecks. The diving activities here are extremely small and lack the infrastructure to be able to do any real exploration and documentation of the treasures we have in Libya. It didn't help that during Qaddafi's times it was illegal to own pleasure boats or even zodiacs and 4WD vehicles. It was such a repressive regime with very intense sense of control and ownership of the country and its resources and the people were simply insects that either served the regime or were obstacles in the path of his control of the country. No development or encouragement for progress at all.