• Scientific and archeological diving: carrying out underwater research
• Media Diving: Organizations involved in underwater journalism and movies.
• Military diving - covert infiltration and underwater engineering by land-based forces
• Naval diving - ship maintenance and repair, mine clearance by ship-based forces
• Police diving - collecting evidence from underwater
• Rescue and Public Safety Diving

• Dive instructors: diver training
• Scientific and archaeological diving: carrying out underwater research

Surface spplied diving equipment, which provides the diver via an umbilical, is used mainly for longer, deeper and more demanding dives.

The main advantages are that large quantities of gas can be stored at the surface, the surface personnel have indirect physical connect with the diver,

they can reduce the diver's workload by controlling gas mixes and warm water heating and communications can be provided through the umbilical.

When doing very long, deep and demanding dives, the divers use "saturation" decompression strategy with surface supplied diving equipment and diving bells.

Typically offshore diving takes place under oil platforms and the pipelines that connect them to their shore installations.

Inland or Onshore Diving is very similar to offshore diving in terms of the nature of the work involved: construction and survey work mainly.

Typical activities for onshore companies are surveying of water storage tanks, reservoirs and pipelines,

construction work on canals and facilities in lakes and estuaries, pontoons, bridges etc with most work being undertaken in fresh water as opposed to salt water.

Onshore divers typically earn less per hour than their colleagues who work offshore,

but more onshore divers can return home each night, whereas offshore divers may spend weeks offshore.

Generally, the same equipment as used in the offshore industry,

with SCUBA a little more common as depths the diver will often be working in quite shallow water,

or in locations where surface supplied equipment is difficult to use, water tanks for instance.

 

Nuclear Diving is a very specialised industry with few companies and divers authorised to work inside nuclear power stations.

The bulk of the water involves maintenance of the cooling ponds used to store radioactive waste,

and as they tend to be made of stainless steel, they require skilled divers to make any repairs.

This diving work is normally very safe, with the major hazard being radiation instead of boats, currents and falling objects offshore and inland divers face,

however due to the extremes that the divers work in,

thermal stress and radiation poisoning are very real dangers that need special training and equipment to overcome.

 

Nuclear divers will only ever use a metal based diving helmet as fibreglass helmets absorb radiation and could be unsafe after multiple dives,

metal helmets don't face this problem and can be used again and again.

The divers will always wear a rubber drysuit and the diving helmet will mate directly to the drysuit creating a water and air-tight environment for the diver.

Typical helmets used include the Desco 'Pot', which is made of Copper.

In certain cases, the diver will need to wear a cold water suit, a special canvas coverall which floods the outside of the divers air-tight rubber

drysuit with cold water, counteracting the dangerous temperatures of the cooling pond.

Finally, and most importantly, the diver will be fitted with a dosimeter which will determine the length of time the diver can work in the

environment by calculating the levels of radiation he/she has been exposed to.

 

HAZMAT Diving is widely regarded as the most dangerous sub-branch of the commercial diving industry,

employing highly skilled and experienced staff.

Typical work involved diving into raw sewage or dangerous chemicals, such as paper pulp, liquid cement or oil sludge,

to do this, divers need to be vaccinatedhepatitis and tetanus, the dive company needs to have specialist plans in place for decontamination

of the diver and equipment following a dive, and procedures for recovery of the diver if something goes wrong.

The main tasks a diver can be found to be doing include essential maintenance of underwater valves and sluice gates, repairs to damages pipelines,

and pollution control work to contain, control and clean up after a pollution incident.

Some divers are required to dive into landfill sites in order to maintain the pumpingsewers or working in septic tanks.

Sewer diving is often considered the most dangerous of all the HAZMAT jobs due to the diseases contained in raw sewage coupled with the fact

syringes and glass find their way into the raw sewage, creating risks of both contracting diseases should the diver be injured by a needle,

and also damaging the drysuit.

 

Divers working in an environment harmful to their health will always wear a full drysuit with thick gloves which are attached directly to the suit,

the helmet and boots will also attach directly to the drysuit, this allows the gloves, boots,

suit and helmet to be pressured in order to prevent ingress of liquid should a puncture occur.

Normally to achieve this, a diver will use a free flow diving helmet which continually supplies enough air for the diver to breathe

plus an additional amount to pressurise the suit, a free flow helmet has a much lower chance of leakage through the exhaust valve compared with a

demand helmet where the exhaust valve is dormant during the inhalation stage of the diver breathing.

The drysuit will be made from a material resistant to whatever hazard the diver faces, normally this will see the diver wear a vulcanised rubber drysuit,

but occasionally a neoprene or tri-laminate suit is required.

Often, a diver will wear additional protection over his drysuit to decrease the chance of a puncture,

leather and nylon coveralls frequently being used in addition to PVC Chemical boiler suits.