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Advanced Scuba Diving
 The
NOAA Diving Program and NURP Centers support more than 25,000
dives per year. Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act,
NOAA has the mandate to address the needs of scientific divers
through advanced diving technologies.
Extending
the current depth limit and bottom time per dive will considerably
increase the undersea areas where self-contained wet-diving
scientists can make firsthand observations, take fine measurements,
and conduct experiments. This new capability will support
NOAA's mission in the areas of fisheries management, habitat
restoration, National Marine Sanctuaries, ocean exploration,
deep sea corals, and marine biotechnology.
To
increase the depth limit and bottom time of NOAA scientific
dives NURP is working in conjunction with the NOAA Diving
Program to implement the following measures:
Adopt
techniques that will extend the safe diving depth of NOAA
dives from the current 130 feet to 300 feet.
 Several
scientific diving programs operated by NURP's university
partners have successfully used innovative deep diving techniques,
most notably in conjunction with NOAA's scientific oversight
of the recovery of the USS Monitor shipwreck. Based on this
success, NURP is working with the NOAA Diving Program and
the AAUS (American Academy of Underwater
Sciences) to establish advanced diving procedures for NOAA
for scientific dives to 300 feet.
Introduce
closed circuit mixed gas rebreathers (CCRs) into NOAA dive
programs.
Standard SCUBA operates as an open circuit system where
the diver's breath is exhaled into the water. Closed circuit
breathing utilizes apparatus that recycles the diver's exhaled
breath, removes the carbon dioxide, and replaces the consumed
oxygen. This reduces the amount of gas that must be carried
by the diver and increases dive time. A NOAA sponsored working
group has generated a safety standard, Minimum Manufacturing
and Performance Requirements for CCRs.
Using the safety standard, CCRs that meet the requirements
will be approved for use on NOAA sponsored dives.
In addition to the above measures,
National Undersea Research Program is also working to:
Facilitate the
formation of the Hawaii Advanced Diving Consortium (HADC)
 The
HADC will provide a regional multi-agency advanced diving
forum where members may share expertise and equipment to
support advanced scientific diving operations. Proposed
participants include NOAA (NURP's Hawaii Undersea Research
Laboratory, the NOAA Diving Program, Office of Ocean Exploration,
National Marine Fisheries Service, and the National Marine
Sanctuaries Program), the University of Hawaii, the Bishop
Museum, and possibly, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Develop a Next Generation Undersea
Laboratory system.
The NURP-sponsored underwater laboratory AQUARIUS, deployed
at a depth of 60 feet in the Florida Keys, has advanced
NOAA's capability to conduct strategic shallow coral research.
Part of NOAA's long term scientific and, potentially,
economic vision is to work towards developing the ability
for humans to live and work under the sea, to the edge
of the continental shelf (to depths up to 3000 ft). NURP
is facilitating the formation of the next generation of
undersea laboratories, which will be mobile, increase
bottom time for a greater number of scientists over a
larger geographical area, and have enhanced underwater
depth capability. To do this will require the development
of a combination of tools and techniques that enable humans
to interact productively with the deep-sea environment
from remote locations, as well as, from on site. Some
of the tools could potentially include submersibles that
allow divers to lock out at depth, habitat (s) or undersea
laboratories where humans live and work for extended periods
at depth, and remotely operated vehicles, to be used in
combination with these facilities.
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