Aquarium Diving

Logging any dive is important, that said even though you log it, that doesn't mean it actually counts as a dive.

Each agency has their own requirements as to what counts as a dive or not. NAUI, for one, does not count any of these dives as actual dives - that said there are a few notable exceptions to this where NAUI will, and does allow for ONE LOGGED dive in confined water - most notable is the Disney dive which you can in fact log and does count for NAUI.

Second point...any time you breathe SCUBA - it is a dive. Diving in an Aquarium environment falls under OSHA and NOAA and it's considered "commercial diving" believe it or not. So, follow those rules for logging a dive. The 20' for 20min is a recreational agency requirement - NOT a OSHA/NOAA regulation requirement. You log everything, even 2 minutes to fit their logging requirements - it's a completely different standard.

Logging a dive proves experience for the purpose of advancing training and fulfilling dive requirements for future dives. Just because you log a dive, any dive, doesn't mean it actually "counts" as a dive for this purpose. It does show you're active, usually indicates a higher degree of comfort and skill in the water and I strongly encourage you to actually record any AQ dive - just separately from your recreational dive log.

The guy's give me all kinds of grief at the shop for logging my AQ dives but here's the bottom line. I get to dive year round, I get to dive frequently and my skills and comfort are 100x better because of it.

Go have fun, go blow some bubbles and log it - just keep it separate.

 

I'd keep it in the same log book, simply not labeling it. I keep my drysuit pool session logged, not labeled. I kept all my confined water training for my DM logged and signed, just in case any questions arise later. My refresher course in the pool was also signed, just not logged.

 

I would like to do the fun aquarium diving like the kind you can do in GA with the whale sharks. I don't want to do the creepy diving with the Mekong Delta catfish like the volunteers do at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The only way you can tell the divers are in there is by looking for bubbles on the surface or if they get really close to the glass.

--Shannon

 

If you are breathing compressed gas at depth you can log it as a dive. I log dives in a bay where you are lucky to hit 17 ft if you bring a shovel with you.

 

A logbook should be a representation of your experience and a dive history you can look back on. I found a scenario for logging dives this spring that was interesting. I have taken to doing some mooring work in a pretty shallow harbor. depths are 10 to 25 feet depending on the spot and the tide. I am up and down a lot on different moorings. The work is new to me and the work at these depths is challenging from a buoyancy standpoint and because of the silt some work is done by feel in zero vis. I look at my vacaion dives in the keys where I can see forever and the water is warm and wonder why those would count and the dives I am doing in the harbor would not. which is really harder? Where am I learning more? That said I dont log each descent. I log one tank of air as one dive, and with a computer I can log cumulative bottom time for each descent as the time for the dive. I figure this is a pretty fair representation of my experience without "padding" the logbook.

 

I wish I had an aquarium large enough to dive in

 

I did. I dove/dived in the Giant Tank in New England Aquarium and there are few reasons I logged the dive.
1. It's the only dive that I was in close quarters with sharks so far. Loved it.
2. I was using different gear and I wanted to make sure I recorded that configuration.
3. Because of the configuration of the tank, I actually could practice new skills .. first real swimthroughs for instance.
4. It was one of the coolest dives I have ever had so why not record it.
Having said that, I did find it a bit 'the same' after a while compared to diving in the wild.

 

Hi Frank

What kind of sharks are those?

 

Sand Tiger Sharks.
There were 3 of these and one Nurse Shark in the tank.
Sand Tigers are one of the kind of sharks that need to keep moving, so you need to stay out of their way. Once I was bumped by one as I was focusing in on something else. It gets a bit tight in the tank in places.
Sadly one of the sharks, which was suffering from severe curvature of the spine, has since died. The malady apparently is something that occurs in sand tiger sharks in the wild as well. I think they have brought a younger one in to join the remaining ones.
The pre-dive tip was "Make sure your fingers don't look like shrimp".
What this meant was either holding a fist the whole time or in my case, holding onto the camera.
Sand tiger shark​

Although the aquarium presents them as not dangerous to humans.. you can see from the chart of shark attacks below that they are not to be taken lightly.​

data from http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/Statistics/species2.htm

 

Just to echo the general consensus here; a dive is a dive is a dive. Your log book is your own. Now, if your log book is full of pool dives, well, it may be looked at with a raised eyebrow, however, though I do not log pool dives in general, if I am using the pool to test a piece of gear or practice a technique, then yes, I log it. The log book is not only a way for others to see what experience you have, it is your record of dives, experiences, issues you have encountered, etc.

I am diving the Epcot aquarium in January and it will definitely be logged.