Scuba
diving may be performed for a number of reasons,
both personal and professional. Most people begin though recreational
diving, which is performed purely for enjoyment and has a
number of distinct technical disciplines to increase interest
underwater, such as cave diving, wreck diving, ice diving
and deep diving.
Divers may be employed professionally to
perform tasks underwater. Most of these commercial divers
are employed to perform tasks related to the running of a
business involving deep water, including civil engineering
tasks such as in oil exploration, underwater welding or offshore
construction. Commercial divers may also be employed to perform
tasks specifically related to marine activities, such as naval
diving, including the repair and inspection of boats and ships,
salvage of wrecks or underwater fishing, like spear fishing.
Other specialist areas of diving include military diving,
with a long history of military frogmen in various roles.
They can perform roles including direct combat, infiltration
behind enemy lines, placing mines or using amanned torpedo,
bomb disposal or engineering operations. In civilian operations,
many police forces operate police diving teams to perform
search and recovery or search and rescue operations and to
assist with the detection of crime which may involve bodies
of water. In some cases diver rescue teams may also be part
of a fire department or lifeguard unit.
Lastly, there are professional divers involved with the water
itself, such as underwater photography or underwater filming
divers, who set out to document the underwater world, or scientific
diving, including marine biology and underwater archaeology.
| TYPE OF DIVING |
CLASSIFICATION |
| Aquarium maintenance in large
public aquariums |
commercial, scientific |
| boat and ship inspection, cleaning and
maintenance |
commercial, naval |
| cave diving |
technical, recreational |
| civil engineering in harbors, water supply,
and drainage systems |
commercial |
| crude oil industry and other offshore construction
and maintenance |
commercial |
| demolition and salvage of ship wrecks |
commercial, naval |
| diver training for reward |
professional |
| fish farm maintenance |
commercial |
| fishing, e.g. for abalones, crabs, lobsters,
pearls, scallops, sea crayfish, sponges |
commercial |
| frogman, manned torpedo |
military |
| harbor clearance and maintenance |
commercial, military |
| media diving: making television programs,
etc. |
professional |
| mine clearance and bomb disposal, disposing
of unexploded ordnance |
military, naval |
| pleasure, leisure, sport |
recreational |
| underwater photography |
professional, recreational |
| policing: diving to investigate or arrest
unauthorized divers |
police diving, military, naval |
| search and recovery diving |
commercial |
| search and rescue diving |
police |
| spear fishing |
professional (occasionally), recreational |
| stealthy infiltration |
military |
| marine biology |
scientific, recreational |
| underwater tourism |
recreational |
| underwater archaeology (shipwrecks; harbors,
and buildings) |
scientific, recreational |
| underwater welding |
commercial |
|
