Are aquarium maintenance dives logable

[kelemvor]

I dive at a local aquarium for the same reasons. I don't bother logging them. I do manage to fit in some learning on many of the dives. I've often kicked around the idea of keeping a separate log of aquarium dives beyond the one we have to fill out for the aquarium's records.

An interesting difference between an aquarium and a regular pool confined water dive is the fact that there is probably lots of aquatic life in an aquarium dive. Dolphins, fish, sharks, etc.. In fact I've dove with far more sharks in the aquarium than I have in the ocean.

---------- Post added November 24th, 2014 at 01:24 AM ----------

There are no scuba police...except here on SB.

Here they sit on top of their cars waving their finger in a circle saying "pull ovah" in a feminine voice.

---------- Post added November 24th, 2014 at 01:28 AM ----------

I do not see any difference between diving in an aquarium and a tropical local on a perfect day. Actually the aquarium maybe a bit more challenging since you do have to maintain proper buoyancy while working at the bottom either cleaning, feeding, presenting, or interacting with the public. You are also navigating in tight spaces between jets from the various pumps which also add to the realism. This is why I believe that these dives should count towards establishing ones' diving skills one way or another.

I think that depends greatly on your particular dive's objectives. Often we need to greatly overweight so that we can stay planted on the bottom of a habitat well enough to put some muscle into the work. I usually dive with 20lbs of lead when I would be diving with none at all on a non working dive.

 

[kwinter]

I keep my aquarium dives in a separate section of my logbook. Your DSO will be required to keep track of all your dives as well. Whether you want to add them to your total dive count is up to you. For the folks that say they're not real dives, you're right. I've done slow drift dives at 20 feet in Cozumel without any effort at all. And I've done dives at 25 feet in my aquarium working my ass off and breathing compressed air for over an hour. Which one do you think should count as a dive? But I do keep them separate.

And note to Steve_C -- these are not "benign dives" with no effort. You can very easily burn through 1500 psi in 20-30 minutes of hard work. If you think aquarium divers just drift through the exhibits and wave to the kids, you're sadly mistaken.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[JohnnyH]

As the DSO for a major aquarium, I concur with everything Ken just said. I always suggest marking exhibit dives in a way so that you may back them out if needed.

For folks who do large numbers of exhibit dives I recommend using the notes section of your log with one line representing one week. I've done over 3,000 exhibit dives so this style of logging is required.

11/23/2014 12x:30 6:00 2,578h 3,127

And yes, DSOs are required to keep logs of every dive (my aquarium tops 5,000 a year). And yes, exhibit diving presents many unique challenges ( including strong currents, dangerous animals, restrictions and overhead environments, falling cell phones, digital cameras, and babies shoes...)

Exhibit diving is a unique experience and should be recorded. Speaking as an instructor I wouldn't use it for pre-requisite dive counts for advanced certifications, but then again, especially for a professional level such as divemaster, if you are that close to the minimum required, then I'd suggest you go out and log more dives that more closely resembles the types of diving in which you will ultimately have other people's lives as your responsibility.

John Hanzl

Author, Out of Hell's Kitchen
www.johnhanzl.com

 

[justbillin]

It’s your log book! I personally don’t log every single dive these days, but my log book actually has a “snuba dive” I did with my young kids a decade ago in Mexico. I did assign it a number because it was a memorable dive to me. Your log book is for you…do what you want!!!