Prerequisites:
Internationally recognized SCUBA certification. Participants must meet BBSR's diving requirements. See the Diving and Snorkeling Forms page.

Course Description:
Study and practice of aquatic research methods using SCUBA as a tool. Advanced research diving topics include areas such as navigation, search and recovery, underwater photography, survey methods, estimating population parameters, and data acquisition while under water. Specific research techniques will be presented in the context of aquatic research projects conducted by students. Students will be eligible to receive PADI or NAUI Advanced Diver, CPR, Oxygen provider, and AAUS certifications.

Objectives:

1. Plan and execute safe and productive research dives.
2. Utilize standard dive tables to determine safe work-time while employing SCUBA.
3. Locate or relocate submerged objects in the field.
4. Collect data using photographic equipment underwater.
5. Identify animals while submerged
6. Survey a population of organisms while using SCUBA.
7. Survey a habitat while using SCUBA
8. Analyze, and present population and habitat data collected while using SCUBA.

Content Outline:

1. Introduction to research methods employing SCUBA
2. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (PADI)
3. Oxygen Provider (PADI)
4. Underwater navigation
5. Deep and extended diving: Review of Dive Table applications
6. Methods employed when visibility is limited or during night studies
7. Underwater search patterns and recovery of submerged objects
8. Underwater photography: still and video
9. Methods for taxonomic identification underwater: Aquatic Invertebrates
10. Methods for taxonomic identification underwater: Aquatic Vertebrates
11. Methods of underwater data acquisition
12. Population survey methods
13. Methods of habitat surveys

Teaching Methods:
Material will be presented using lectures, field experiences, and laboratory sessions. Lectures will describe procedures and will highlight specific applications presented in assigned readings. Field experiences will provide training in specific techniques by engaging students in representative research projects. Laboratory sessions will review procedures employed in the field and will allow data to be organized, analyzed and interpreted after each field project.

Evaluation Procedures:
Performance will be evaluated based on attendance, participation, timely completion of assignments, and diving skill and ability, as well as on written examinations and formal reports prepared from data acquired in the field and analyzed during laboratory sessions as part of CRE/MIZ.

Supporting Literature:
Anonymous. 1997. Complete Underwater Diving Manual. NOAA, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington. Anonymous. 1975. Diving for Science and Technology. NOAA, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington.

Text:
Richardson, D. 1991. Adventures in Diving. PADI, Santa Anna, California.

Photos by James B. Wood