Divers interested in the Oregon Coast Aquarium volunteer program have to go through a PADI Habitat Diver Distinctive Specialty course conducted at the aquarium in Newport. They also must qualify to take this course with prior cold water diving experience, and other certifications and documentation required. After going through the course, volunteer divers are placed into a rotation schedule for working one day every three weeks in maintenance diving teams. Average team sizes are about six in number.
Divers arrive at the aquarium around 7:30 am most days and diving begins around 8 am. There are three main exhibits that need diver support most, in an area called Passages of the Deep. There are several other exhibits that need regular diving throughout the rest of the aquarium. Divers perform many functions, including vacuuming the bottom, cleaning the acrylic tunnels visitors pass through, scraping calcium carbonate off the walls, wiping and scrubbing algae off displays and sometimes they are asked to hand feed the fish and anemone, or work with specific animals under the direction of the aquarists in charge of the exhibits.
I personally, drove to the aquarium from Portland in the morning, and back home each day after completing my dives. I seldom spent the night unless I was helping with a certification class or diving two days consecutively. From Portland, Newport is a 2 1/2 hour trip each way, if you don't stop... 3 hours if you take a break along the way. Many of the volunteers live closer to Newport, in Salem or Eugene, Oregon. I knew one who lived in Bend, Oregon however, even one who called her home Metlakatla, Alaska. The person I met from Bend, roated every six weeks, the diver from Alaska worked at the aquarium for one year while she lived in a fifth wheel, in Seal Rock.
