Filter Available Articles by Selecting a Category:
Filter...
Our group of six researchers back rolled off the vessel near Jupiter, Florida, and began our descent to the sandy bottom nearly 80 feet (24 meters) below. As the wreck became visible, our team streamlined into formation to begin our task: searching for goliath groupers.
Seventy miles west of Key West, Florida, lies one of the most remote and beautiful national parks in the United States: Dry Tortugas National Park. Sitting isolated in the Gulf of Mexico, these islands mark the westernmost edge of the Florida Keys archipelago.
When I was young I read about Antarctic expeditions and was mesmerized by the alien worlds found under the ice. As incredible as it looked, I never imagined seeing it for myself. I enjoy all types of diving and underwater environments, and ice diving was another unique and challenging realm to explore — one that required furthering my dive education and skills.
Few people were diving in the freezing ocean around St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, in the winter of 1986. I still had my Poseidon Unisuit, which I had used for several years of commercial diving in British Columbia in the late 1970s. I had not been in the water for several years but wanted to get started again.
In 2021 Peter Buzzacott, PhD, of Curtin University in Perth, Australia, received DAN’s Alfred Bove Research Grant for Cardiac Health in Scuba Diving. What began with a simple proposal has since developed into a training network for the next generation of scientists and led to a research network between Curtin University and Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia.
You check in at the dive shop, sign your waivers, get your gear on the boat, and set up your BCD on your first tank for the day. The divemaster introduces you to your dive buddy for this trip — a total stranger from another part of the world who is here for the same things you are: great diving and returning home safely.
Recreational diving is a fun and relaxing sport meant to be enjoyed. But what happens when things don’t go as planned: Your mask comes off, your regulator gets knocked out, or someone in your group runs out of air?
There is a magic art to keeping divers’ attention long enough to impart safety-critical information. Talking about the cool things you will see is easy, but briefings also contain vital information that will keep your divers safe.
It doesn’t seem so long ago that I rolled into Key Largo, Florida, with a Nikonos II camera and a darkroom sink in the back of my Chevy van to figure out how to make a living as an underwater photographer. Things have changed since 1978, and underwater photography is not the novelty it was when I started.