Recruiting for DAN Research

DAN RESEARCH IS CONTINUALLY LOOKING for divers, researchers, and health care professionals to volunteer to support our work. Depending on your availability and location, you might qualify as a diver in a DAN research study — online or in the water. 

DAN Research

Underwater Photography with Compact Cameras

MANY DIVERS DON’T WANT TO TAKE LARGE digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) housings or expensive mirrorless cameras on their dives. Their goal is to capture memories to show their family or post on social media, not to get the highest-quality underwater images.

Female diver swimming in front of the Elviscott wreck

Leopard Seal

EVERY PHOTOGRAPHER HAS A DREAM SHOT. For a long time mine was to see a particular natural predation: a leopard seal hunting a penguin in Antarctica. When I traveled to Antarctica for the first time in 2018, I thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Little did I know I’d be venturing back repeatedly over the next few years. 

leopard seal swims around kelp

Jennifer Hayes

READERS WILL KNOW THE BYLINE “David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes” from scores of National Geographic magazine features. Working as a team they have photographed the wild ocean from the tropics to both polar regions and even some rather unusual aquatic realms in between.

Harp seal pup

SS Manasoo

NORTH AMERICA’S GREAT LAKES have long provided a natural transportation corridor to the continent’s interior. The Anishinaabe people — the region’s original inhabitants — utilized the Great Lakes for trade, passage, and nourishment and developed a rich culture centered around them.

Don Wallace’s 1927 Chevrolet AA Capitol coupe

Helium Gas Purity: What Is Pure Enough?

THE THREE GASES GENERALLY used in recreational and technical diving are oxygen, nitrogen, and helium. Nitrogen is the most abundant and is usually the default gas, but no one seems concerned about its purity, although the U.S. Compressed Gas Association (CGA) provides purity levels, or grades, for various applications. 

Helium/Oxygen Analyzer

Back to Lembeh

THE QUESTION PEOPLE MOST FREQUENTLY ASK us about our years of dive travel involves our favorite place to dive. This can be a delicate topic, especially when visiting a resort with resident staff or management nearby. We unfailingly reply, “Where we’re diving now.”

These 2-inch male mandarin fish display their beautiful outstretched fins without hostility

Shallow-Water Blackout

I have learned to read the minute details of each athlete’s technique and interpret the impending risk that arises as they push themselves in pursuit of a personal-best performance.

shallow water blackout

Diving in the Turks and Caicos Islands

DIVING IN THE TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS guarantees plenty of beauty and excitement. This British overseas protectorate entices tourists with the slogan “Beautiful by Nature.” The Caribbean waters throughout the islands offer breathtaking vertical walls, frequent close encounters with pelagics, and opportunities to observe an incredible diversity of fascinating marine life.

A diver poses with a massive tube sponge at Double D dive site.

Children and Diving

MINORS HAVE BEEN DIVING FOR DECADES, but the incidence of scuba diving injuries among them remains poorly studied.

child diving