Alberta Underwater Council
 

DiveSmartAlberta.ca

AUC's newest program "DiveSmartAlberta.ca" - it even has it's own website!

 

• DiveSmartAlberta.ca

Announcing AUC's newest program "DiveSmartAlberta.ca", encouraging recreational divers, companies, communities to hire the appropiate commercial diver/company to do the work required underwater.  Remember, these jobs are not appropriate for a recreational diver!

 

• Do you need to hire a Diver?

Note: Search & Recovery Courses for recreational divers are excellent introductory training in the use of small lift bags. But this does not qualify recreational divers to try to recover heavy objects from Alberta's mucky lake bottoms! Recently, a diver lost his life trying to lift a small boat motor stucked deep into soft lake bottom.  He got stuck as well, then panicked & died. Another died in 2022 attempting to inspect/repair irrigation dam/gate. 

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• Q. Is this request for a scuba diver to search and/or recover an object (or do underwater work) a "commercial divers' job"?? 

• A. YES - in almost every scenario.  Even a supposedly simple search for a lost cell phone involves substantial risk to the recreational "scuba diver"! 

• Remember:

- Most objects don't travel straight down, so potential area to search is large​

- Objects disappear into the silt or muskeg bottom, leaving no trace

- Visibility is so poor, even a small area to search is near impossible

- Boat traffic poses significant risk to diver's safety

- Entanglement hazards can fatally trap a diver, who then runs out of air

- Lakes are often huge with little visual references to remember exactly where the item was lost, so searches are often futile.

• LOST CELL PHONE? read here for the reality of search/recovery.

Questions? Send email: info@albertaunderwatercouncil.com