HSE vs IDSA? What to do?

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Kevin95

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Hi! I will just throw my questions out there, because I dont really know how to start haha.

Im a educated zoo keeper from Sweden and my goal is to work scientifically with sharks and other sea creatures in the ocean in the future. But im also up to work as a aquarist or anything that has to do with animals and water. I have a Advanced PADI OW and Advanced Freediver, and planning to go further with both.

But to get even more attractive on the market, do anyone recommend HSE SCUBA or should I just save money and go on the PADI track?
We have one place in Sweden that you can get certified with and its called S-30(which is like HSE SCUBA but worse I think), but doesnt even get to the level of European Scientific Diver (ESD) (Is HSE SCUBA ESD or where can I live up to that?)
and its IDSA Level 1. From what I have heard IDSA is useless?
They do tho have a another course too to get a A-40 cert(which is like HSE Surface Supplied I think, or between that and SCUBA?), but its still IDSA.

In the fields I want to work in, does it matter if it is HSE SCUBA(or similar) or A-40 or higher? Is it always better to have the higher one or for an example HSE SCUBA which is made for that kind of field?



Is anything of this worth it? Is IDSA worth in that case or should I travel to another country to another course?

Thanks in advanced!
 
Kevin, first of all, you sound very enthusiastic and goal directed! The area of your interests and potential field of study are very broad, so it is hard to specify what type of training will serve you best in the future. Realize that when you are talking about "Scientific Diving", Scientific divers are normally qualified scientists first and divers second. Scientific diving organizations have programs which are quite different from most commercial diving programs. When I was working as a commercial diver, some of my co-workers were IDSA trained, and they were fine divers, IDSA training is far from "useless", but IDSA certainly leans to the commercial and surface supply side of things. Until your career is more defined I would suggest continuing with SCUBA training. You will have an easier time getting more dive time in. Once you have your career choice narrowed down, you will be able to better direct your dive training. You may very well find that the diving training you need is a very small part of the road to your chosen career. As an aside, my friend is a manager aquarist at the Baltimore aquarium, and spends a great deal of time in the tanks there. He only has a PADI divemaster certification. Best of luck in your future under the waves.
 
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When it comes to commercial certificates here in Sweden a few things that came up recently : the are several places to get S-30 here and it's the basic licence you need to do any kind of commercial diving in Sweden. Also if you want to work on some of the archeology sites that is the minimum although several now require s-40. Then there is A-dyk which is much more rigorous and involves surface supplied etc if I remember correctly.
Here in karlskrona it is quite easy if you go via the military route.. Or check with one of the instructors from the military, that is what we are looking at for spring time to get a few of us s-30 certified so we can do dive work for the council etc.
Anyway, I have a few contacts in the UK at blue planet, a shark conservation aquarium that I know which might be able to give you more details about the market etc
 
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