Defining Science diving and volunteer opportunities

[Wookie]

Thal... straight from the AAUS web site:

Certification

The American Academy of Underwater Sciences offers AAUS Verification cards directly through our website for AAUS members that have been trained through a participating organization and are active scientific divers. The process is quick and easy! Click this link to begin the purchasing your AAUS Scientific Diver Verification of Training Card."

This card is not intended to be used in lieu of a Letter of Reciprocity and Training Verification when requesting reciprocity from or transferring authorization to another AAUS organizational member.

Sooooo..... What's it good for? I couldn't accept it for anything to do with scientific diving. Any university that has a scientific diver program that certifies 60 foot scientific divers will usually issue a recreational card as well.

 

[g1138]

I consider the cards are really just bragging rights and an extra way for AAUS to collect a small fee. In any case, it doesn't prove much considering you can lose your rating with your institution if you don't keep up on your dives, inspections, or safety certifications.
I know the divers in my area don't get one after passing the class, so really it's just something extra.

 

[Thalassamania]

That's not called a certification for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it is, rather, a confirmation of status. Whilst that may seem a trivial difference, it is not. Certification is basically a signed oath by the instructor that a diver has met a set of rather specific training standards, the AAUS verification card is administrative evidence, by an office functionary, that a diver had active AAUS research diver status at a given point in time. What it comes down to is AAUS members have been unwilling to bite the bullet that would require each institution to surrender sufficient sovereignty to make it an actual certification program.

In the membership faqs section of the AAUS website it is clarified:

"How do I become an AAUS certified diver? Does AAUS offer classes directly?

One of the common misunderstandings about AAUS is that, unlike the traditional recreational diving model, it is not a certifying agency. It provides consensual standards for safe diving to the member organizations which, in turn, train and qualify the divers under their oversight. Generally speaking, this requires some kind of affiliation with the organizational member because of workman's comp and other insurance issues but if you can get past that, then a 100 hr. training course in advanced techniques which includes 12 dives, usually offered by the organizational member, is required to become a scientific diver."

 

[drbill]

Thanks for the clarification, Thal.

 

[Thalassamania]

Thanks for the clarification, Thal.

Bill, if you can be confused about it, anyone can. That's a real issue for me. I am strongly ambivalent about AAUS offering a certification course and card. On one hand, if the true Scripps model is followed by instructors who have actually done it, that would be great, however that they are (I fear at this stage) a minority of the organization. If we were to wind up with an AAUS standard that bought into the fore the same sorts of limited expectations that recreational programs have (witness this recent thread), that would be a disaster. AAUS needs to accept the fact that recreational diving has moved in a radically different direction from it's roots in scientific diving and sever all ties, starting with the useless requirement that a DSO have a recreational instruction credential.

 

[Abdullah]

Thal,
How does AAUS validate the training program from one institution to another? How are the AAUS best practices standardized across the various organizations? Does AAUS periodically audit institutions to ensure they are compliant?

 

[Thalassamania]

Thal,
How does AAUS validate the training program from one institution to another? How are the AAUS best practices standardized across the various organizations? Does AAUS periodically audit institutions to ensure they are compliant?

You are pointing to problems that I have long been concerned with. When AAUS started there was no real thought given to this issue since we were a collection of people (the first generation of DSOs) who literally "wrote the book," when it came to both scientific and recreational diving. There was a trust between all of us, and a decision was made that the institutions should remain sovereign and that there was no need for cross-institutional standardization or validation since reciprocity was not absolute: divers still had to take a written exam and a check dive. So, rather general guidelines for instruction were (are) all that there was (is). While I still feel that this is a little too loose and permits too much influence from the recreational diving world, I can't point to any safety problems that this have created, beyond the theoretical.

 

[g1138]

Thal,
How does AAUS validate the training program from one institution to another? How are the AAUS best practices standardized across the various organizations? Does AAUS periodically audit institutions to ensure they are compliant?

You are pointing to problems that I have long been concerned with. When AAUS started there was no real thought given to this issue since we were a collection of people (the first generation of DSOs) who literally "wrote the book," when it came to both scientific and recreational diving. There was a trust between all of us, and a decision was made that the institutions should remain sovereign and that there was no need for cross-institutional standardization or validation since reciprocity was not absolute: divers still had to take a written exam and a check dive. So, rather general guidelines for instruction were (are) all that there was (is). While I still feel that this is a little too loose and permits too much influence from the recreational diving world, I can't point to any safety problems that this have created, beyond the theoretical.

Thal, perhaps you can tell us about the Letter of Reciprocity between institutions. I'm not entirely familiar with the specifics within the letter, but I think this addresses Abdullah's question with regards to transferring divers between institutions.

 

[Thalassamania]

Letters vary, I did a search and found this as a reasonable example: Letter of Reciprocity from Chris Wade

In any case, here's a summary of what it is all about, taken from a recently replaced AAUS web page:

Scientific diving is defined by OSHA regulations (29 CFR 1910.402) 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 does not include tasks associated with commercial diving such as: rigging heavy objects underwater; inspection of pipelines; construction; demolition; cutting or welding; or the use of explosives.

According to the Code of Federal Regulations (29CFR 1910.401(2)(iv), OSHA (the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has determined that an organization may be exempt from the regulations that govern commercial diving activities provided it meets the following criteria:

Defined as scientific diving and which is under the direction and control of a diving program containing at least the following elements:

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

2. Diving control (safety) board, with the majority of its members being active scientific divers, which shall at a minimum have the authority to: approve and monitor diving projects, review and revise the diving safety manual, assure compliance with the manual, certify the depths to which a diver has been trained, take disciplinary action for unsafe practices, and assure adherence to the buddy system (a diver is accompanied by and is in continuous contact with another diver in the water) for scuba diving.assure adherence to the buddy system (a diver is accompanied by and is in continuous contact with another diver in the water) for scuba diving.

Further guidelines for scientific diving appear in Appendix B to Subpart T:

1. The Diving Control Board consists of a majority of active scientific divers and has autonomous and absolute authority over the scientific diving program's operation.

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

What is Scientific Diving?

Scientific diving programs allow research diving teams to operate under the exemption from OSHA commercial diving regulations.

AAUS Member Organizations help protect themselves from possible fines and civil suits by their confirmed commitment to meeting AAUS requirements and adherence to a set of standards recognized as the "standard of practice" within the scientific diving community.

Following a consensual set of standards enables AAUS member organizations to enjoy reciprocity when collaborating on research projects with other AAUS member organizations. This reciprocity is the product of years of experience, trust and cooperation between underwater scientists.

 

[boulderjohn]

I had an interesting set of experiences related to this thread a couple of weeks ago. I spent a week on Andros Island in the Bahamas. I was staying on a fairly remote resort (Small Hope Bay) which features the only dive boats and lodging in the area. It also has a lodge with a bar and a restaurant with set eating times, resulting in guests sitting together and talking for extended periods, meaning that get to know one another quickly. During that one week I had the following experiences.

1. Two marine scientists were there almost the entire time. They were part of a multinational research project looking at the lion fish invasion in a number of areas; their area was the Bahamas. We had a number of very interesting talks, and I asked them about the subject of this thread. They said there was a time when many marine scientists resisted the use of volunteers, but those days are over. They now make good use of volunteers with carious levels of training in a number of situations. One example was simply hunting for lion fish. A couple of scientists could go to a site with a number of volunteers. The volunteers would need very little training, because all they really did was conduct a fun dive while carrying marker buoys. When they came upon a lionfish, they would leave a marker with a float that went to the surface. The scientists would not go into the water until the markers would be deployed. Since they could collect all the specimens without having to look for them, it made their work more efficient by an order of magnitude.

2. A conservation group that was transplanting coral to the area, which has a tremendous amount of dead coral. Much of their group was volunteers.

3. There was another group I did not get to talk to because they spent little time in the lodge and went out on their boat at a different time from us. They wre weaering T-shirts that indicated they were some sort of ocean conservation volunteer organization.

Apparently it is possible for people to do volunteer work without having advanced scientific degrees.