Can anyone tell me about AAUS Scientific Diver certification?

I have no idea which forum is the right one for this question. I'm a beginner diver, but going to grad school (biology) next fall. I have the option of taking this course at a local university now, or waiting until next year. How difficult is it? I'm trying to weed out what aspects are part of the university's course (which may vary), and which are AAUS's requirements. Some of what I've read makes me think it is a very advanced course, and other things make it look like something I can do now. I've looked at the AAUS website already. I'm curious what other people had to do to get this certification.

Thalassamania is your guy for this info.


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I'm sure Thalassamania will chime in with a boatload of info, but I'll give you a basic rundown of some info, along with some of my own experiences.

In my opinion, the AAUS course, if taught properly, should be a challenge to most divers. I say this because the course not only encompasses a wide range of diving techniques and skills, but it also puts you in a position where you are faced with some pretty serious task loading. For a beginner diver such as yourself, this is where I suspect you would run into issues. Being able to do a great number of tasks while diving in marginal conditions is the backbone of most scientific diving off the west coast. For example, in my own course we were completing abalone transects that were to be used by fish and game to determine this upcoming abalone season's limits and where closures will take effect. To do this, a standard dive would go as such:

- swim out to your pelican float which has been placed and GPS marked for the start of your transect. Each diver is carrying all their regular gear plus a good bag, each containing 1 large pair of calipers, 1 clipboard w/ data sheet, and one diver has a large 30m transect tape as well.
- take heading of transect, descend into high surge and low vis environment (its Norcal diving )
- remove transect tape from bag, anchor it and begin to navigate/roll out the transect tape for 30m
- once your at the end your data collection starts. As you swim back, each buddy is collecting for one side of the tape. Before moving, you first account for your different percent substrate, then your percent bottom composition, then you record how many of each species of urchin, star, and abalone you see. You also record how many of a variety of specific fish you see. Now you take your calipers and record the widths of each abalone and red urchin (thats a lot to do). Now you move 5 meters. Stop. Do it all over again, and again until you hit 30 meters.
- Once your done, pack up your tape, calipers, clipboard, pelican float, etc and swim in.

Needless to say, it is a lot of work in a very limited dive time. This is exactly why most courses you take for AAUS will focus on getting your basic scuba skills to be completely second nature. Even if your in the middle of a boulder field with 20ft back and forth surge with 5 ft vis, you shouldn't once have to actually think about adjusting your buoyancy or redoing some strap, it should all happen automatically and with little to no effort or thought on your part. For this reason alone, a lot of the places that certify AAUS require a certain number of dives for new students, or require them to have taken a Rescue Diver course offered by the same place so they could test your skills there.

In my opinion, I would recommend you work on filling up that dive log before you go into an environment where the goal is to task load you more then you ever thought possible. Get those dive skills nice and polished, then go and give the AAUS course your best. More then likely the people who you get certified by will be those whom you end up doing research dives with. The connections you build during your course will either make or break a chance at some awesome opportunities, but if theres one thing those instructors wont enjoy seeing its someone who isnt ready for the course. I personally know of multiple divers who simply can't seem to get into a research dive because their reputation of being a poor diver succeeds them, and its sad to see someone's hard work go to waste, but when your talking about diving that can be borderline "commercial" you have to know what your doing.

If you do decide you want to take the course, I would recommend either UCSC's program or UC Davis' program. Both are very high quality, immersive, and will get you on the right track. Of course, I have a personal bias towards Davis, but the course out there at the UCD Bodega Marine Lab is the best certification experience I have ever had. Suffice to say, it was a week and half solid of living in housing with your classmates where you eat, sleep, and breathe diving. Your either in class or diving by 8:00 every morning until 9:00 or later every night, and the rough conditions you see out on the exposed north coast will make you an incredibly confident and skilled diver. Not to mention you get to have a huge party at the last night, which by the way is proceeded by a great diving/camping trip up into Salt Point State Park (maybe a new locale for this upcoming year?) I made more useful connections and great memories in that class then I have in the last decade.

All that typing, and yet I know Thalassamania will be able to offer so much more

But yeah, bottom line: Dont rush too much into it, its not for many, and definitely not for new divers.

P.S: Here is a rundown of some of the things covered in the course I took.

- Rescue diving skills (its a skills test, since you should already be certified as one)
- swimming test
- boating skills, including boat rescue stuff, putting on survival suits, getting people/yourself back onto boats, boating safety, etc
- skin diving skills and test (pretty extensive, its considered to be an important backbone to things)
- mastery of scuba skills and test
(the skills tests were much more difficult then my Dive Master skills tests, just to give you some reference)
- Navigation
- Night diving
- Deep diving
- Nitrox and mixed gas diving (you get your Nitrox Card)
- NAUI Master diver course (you get your Master Diver card since the course is integrated into the AAUS course)
- DAN Emergency O2 certification course
- DAN Field Neurological Exam course
- Research skills (I.E laying out transects, etc)
- Species identification (you have to know what your looking for!)
- Marlinspike
- Diving theory
- History of scientific diving
- Physiology of Diving
- Physics of Diving
- Dive planning (they go very in depth, so more like Advanced Dive Planning)
- Search and recovery (learning and implementing search patterns, practicing getting to use lift bags, etc)
- Rough water entry/exit. (Most all of your dives are in pretty nasty conditions, so this is learned through experience)
- Theres even more, I just think this post if getting way too long...

Hope it helps

Toga

Wow, that was a lot of great info. Thanks! I was actually considering the course at Moss Landing Marine Lab, where I've taken another course. (I go to a CSU.) I'm an ecology and evolutionary biology student, so I know what's involved with doing transects in general on land, such as juggling equipment while basically rock climbing in the rocky intertidal for 5 hours.

That's good to know that they do require Rescue Diver certification. This is a big part of what my question was about. I know that's a lot more advanced and that I need to practice skills and log more dives. I just wasn't sure if that was the level of all the Scientific Diver courses out there. The course at Moss Landing incorporates a research project and lots of other stuff that may or may not be part of certification, while the summer course at CSUMB doesn't have any of that. I haven't looked into other courses.

All the schools where I'm applying have marine labs, so they should have scientific diver programs.

Glad it helped! There are a lot of great courses out there, just make sure that you leave it with an AAUS certification, not some SSI, NAUI, or PADI Research Diver certification. You'd be surprised how many people mix up the two, but you can be sure employers wont

Thalassamania is definitely the guy to help answer this question.

My input having gone through the AAUS program through UCSC.
AAUS is not like a standard NAUI or PADI certification. It's a rating, you can lose your standing if you don't keep up with your University/Lab's policy (such as logging your dives within a timeframe).

Each University/Lab has their own practical tests (swim, skin, scuba skills) and class criteria depending on where their divers are diving and what they'll most likely be doing in that area.
I would look up the tests and class criteria on the website of the place where you'll be taking your AAUS cert class. Then simply practice and prepare.
You're going to have some competition from other students as well. UCSC's program currently has a lot of students trying to get in, most of them are undergrads. If MLML is anything like that, you better prepare yourself for the written and practical tests.

Here's the MLML website about the class
Research Diving at MLML » CertificationGoodluck, it's definitely a worthwhile experience.

I'm happy to answer general, or specific, questions. It looks like most of what needs to be said has been said. In the AAUS structure the institution is sovereign not some agency, so there is some real diversity in approaches to getting the job done ... but the end products are remarkably similar.

g1138:

You're going to have some competition from other students as well. UCSC's program currently has a lot of students trying to get in, most of them are undergrads. If MLML is anything like that, you better prepare yourself for the written and practical tests.

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That's not the case at MLML. It's a smaller school, and most CSU students at other campuses don't even realize we can all take classes there. In my case, as a CSUEB student, those are some of the only real field work classes that haven't been cut in my major. MLML's diving class actually has a lot of space in the fall, although I think it fills up in the short summer course.

I haven't been to (ML)² since John Heine was there (I actually took some classes there back in 1968), but I looked at their website and Diana looks to be experienced and well qualified.

Pepper_the_rat:

That's not the case at MLML. It's a smaller school, and most CSU students at other campuses don't even realize we can all take classes there. In my case, as a CSUEB student, those are some of the only real field work classes that haven't been cut in my major. MLML's diving class actually has a lot of space in the fall, although I think it fills up in the short summer course.

Click to expand...

Tell that to the UCSC students taking their Sci Dive class there.
It never hurts to be better prepared, it's quite a wait if you don't get in.
It turns out better divers too if there's a bit of competition.


Edit
Forgot about the Fall class. Yes the Summer class in August fills fast, but after that I don't think you'll get any UC kids coming in. Still doesn't hurt to prepare though.