Volunteer divers and employed divers

[k ellis]

Ok I have the opportunity to dive in a loca aquarium and get to spend time talking with plenty of people explaining to them the lives of the sea creatures we so enjoy. One thing I love so much is to see the excitement it brings to childrens faces as well as to them a diver is like some mystical figure almost along the lines of a superhero to them.

As I dive in the tank its also impressing and so awesome to look at the children on the other side of the glass and the amazement they have at this curious diver who is in the tank feeding the fish and helping to maintain a clean and healthy environement. I guess its just a way of giving back to the sea life that in turn has brought to me so much enjoyment and so much amazement and yet been some of the most loyal and honest companions I have ever had as they never cease to amaze me and they are always dependable to just live life like its all one big happy dream.

Anyway I am just curious to hear from other people who are either paid divers or volunteer dive in order to help preserve our beloved sea life and coral reefs. Or work to save lives when time matters most.

Ok Ill turn it over to anyone who has anything to add!

 

[chuck34gboro]

I have no experience but I have researched it and it seems most aquariums require time commitments from volunteers that I cannot meet. I'm hoping that it'll be something I can do in retirement maybe co-inciding with a seasonal DM job in some tropical resort.

 

[Thiad]

I ran into the same thing as Chuck. I recently read about our regional aquarium needing help cleaning the tank or acting as a liaison with visitors. I love the idea but they did frame the position with restrictions - valid, of course, which make it beyond something I can do (it's a three hour drive and they need weekly commitments). One thing they were definitely looking for was college students willing to work as interns - probably an excellent opportunity and helpful for scholarships.

One of the problems with not living directly on the coast, I guess.

 

[Searcaigh]

I have worked with several marine biologists in the past with some research

 

[paddler3d]

I'm one of the volunteer divers at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. We have 14 teams of 10-14 divers per team.

I love it. I've been on the teams for almost two years. There are guys, and gals, that have been volunteering there since the early 80's.

We feed two exhibits in 4 dives in one day. We have over 50 animals in the Ray exhibit and bunches in the Atlantic Coral Reef exhibits. Not only do we feed, but we also maintain these exhibits. We also do maintenance in the dolphin exhibits. We also do special event dives. Next Tuesday night we are doing an Access Aquarium. It is an after hours event where 14ish agencies who serve people with disability get to bring in their clients. Each group are assigned exhibit guides. Since it is after hours, they have the Aquarium to themselves and they don't have to worry about dealing with accessibility issues. It is cool. As divers we're in the water interacting with the animals and floating talking to the visitors.

There is a big social aspect to the teams. Some of these teams have been diving together for years and they form relationships outside the Aquarium. Half my team goes to Bonaire together every year. A few of us make the trip together down to NC to dive. We're also one of those happy hour teams.

We don't interact with the public as much as I would hope. The tender does, but for the most part we're working.

As a whole, it is very interesting being in the fishbowl looking out.

One thing to check out is to see if your aquarium has a reciprocity agreement with other aquariums. You can dive other aquariums!

Good luck and enjoy diving!

 

[divingtpapa]

I too used to volunteer as a scuba diver at the National Awuarium in Baltimore and it was the happiest 6 years of my life. I loved working with the public, the socialization on the dive team, and the excellent water conditions. Warm clear water and tropical fish!

 

[seaducer]

I am a volunteer at Adventure Aquarium in NJ. I love the interaction between the divers and guests, most of the time. Some kids just think they are too cool for the rest of us.

We put on shows and do special events also. We have sleepover nights where kids can spend the night sleeping with the fishes. We used to put on shows but now just do regular dives for them.

Every Halloween we do a show where a diver in a spooky mask swims by a window in Shark Realm. That is a challenging dive as the masked diver can barely see anything, so a strategically placed support diver signals and warns the other.

We do Scuba Santa at Christmas. The last two years though they have hired divers to perform it full time, as they added a script and were not happy that we were not able to live up to the acting levels they hoped for.

Other than that we have a mess of brown, sand tiger, nurse and two sawfish in Shark Realm, and assorted fish and rays plus a great hammerhead, tiger, silky, blacktip and zebra sharks in Ocean Realm. Also a trio of bowmouth guitarfish who tried breeding this year! I don't think they were successfull but maybe as early as next year the small number of aquariums breeding this species will go up by 1.

In my head we have a huge impact on some of the kids and even adults. I feel we are increasing awareness of the importance and fragility of the oceans as well as feeding the interests in scuba diving as a fun family activity.

I look forward to my dive days (this Saturday!), I enjoy my team mates, like getting wet, swimming with all the critters, and give back what I can.

My main form of "giving back" will be after I die. I want my wife to dump my weighted down body in the bay so I can give some pleasure to all the crustaceans that have given me so much!

 

[Guba]

I'm a volunteer science diver for the Aquarena Center (San Marcos, Texas). We take care of Spring Lake, an open air impoundment fed by the San Marcos Springs. The Center runs glass-bottomed boat tours, and we divers are responsible for maintaining the main channel. This requires "farming" the bottom by removing non-indigenous plant species and cleaning the springs themselves of debris, and we do routine maintenance such as tending the underwater webcam located in the lake.

I also volunteer for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (Galveston, Texas). While this rarely involves actual diving, it does involve interacting with the public in a wide variety of ways...educational workshops, teacher seminars, public information days, special events, etc... It also encourages me to "get out there and dive" and conduct my own "research" into ocean issues so that I can bring some of that back to my own classroom and students.

Both of these are fine ways to spread information about the aquatic/marine environment and they both provide me a huge amount of data to use in doing so.

 

[fjpatrum]

Not yet, but this is specifically why I'm looking at AOW classes. The National Aquarium, in Baltimore has a 30 dive and AOW requirement for being a volunteer diver. I've always really enjoyed the Aquarium and would Love to have the opportunity to give back and at the same time teach my kids and others more about the ocean and conservation of our natural resources. It's a weekly, full-day, (mid-week) commitment so that makes it more difficult but it's worth it, I think.

Honestly, without this impetus I would never pursue an AOW course.

We also have a lot of local research going on that my local dive shop hooked me up with. I haven't gone on any of the dives, yet, but I keep hoping to be able to in the future. They do side-scan sonar searches, historic wreck mapping, plant and fish life cataloging and similar type of research.

 

[Dr Neil]

I've been on the Volunteer Dive Team at the Virginia Aquarium for 10 years. We have a minimum number of hours we need to volunteer each year to stay on the team.

I like our flexible scheduling so you can literally dive any day of the week.

New team members are restricted to diving only one of the tanks. After being on the Team for 6 months, team members are eligible to tryout to dive in one of the other tanks. After being on the Team for one year, divers may tryout to dive in the other three tanks.

Aquarium diving is a whole different experience. I firmly believe that it has made me a better diver.