By Roxanne R. Robertson, DAN/AAUS Intern

Reprinted with permission from The Slate, the newsletter of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences.

Each year, Divers Alert Network (DAN) invites students to participate in a summer internship program. Interns gain experience, make professional contacts, and support a variety of diving safety research projects and initiatives. The research most strongly associated with the internship program is Project Dive Exploration (PDE), which collects computerized dive profile and health outcome data to model risk of real world exposures. While PDE remains an important project, interns are increasingly matched to a wider array of projects to fit their individual interests and abilities. DAN places interns around the world in such locations as Scotland, Grand Cayman, Santa Cruz, and DAN Headquarters. This summer DAN decided to try something new. An intern with an interest in scientific diving was to be made available to the main office of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS). This plan was to benefit all—the intern would gain firsthand experience in scientific diving operations, AAUS would receive much appreciated support, and DAN would gain additional data from the scientific diving community.

To me, the intern, the collaboration seemed an amazing opportunity to expand my dive knowledge in several directions. Not only would I be exposed to dive safety research through DAN, I would also gain scientific diving experience, work directly with a diving safety officer (DSO), help in ongoing marine research at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL), and make a contribution to the AAUS.

Roxanne Robertson

I arrived at the AAUS host site on Dauphin Island, AL, in mid-May. After completing a week-long professional development course at DISL, I flew to DAN Headquarters in Durham, NC, for a week of training and orientation. I, along with six other DAN interns, attended presentations on recompression therapy and chambers, PDE development, remote emergency oxygen, diabetes and diving, and the history of DAN, to name a few. During this time I met with Dr. Neal Pollock to discuss my goals for the summer. We drew from the AAUS strategic plan and formulated a list of goals to be accomplished by the end of the summer. In addition to collecting PDE data from scientific divers at DISL, I would work to enhance the presence of AAUS in the scientific dive community.

Upon returning to DISL, my first assignment was to serve as editor of the E-Slate. The E-Slate was developed as a new service to AAUS Members to share news items on a monthly basis. Each month I compiled and edited diving news articles for the E-Slate. I contacted several dive organizations, including Reef Check and DAN, and several AAUS board members for information to include in the E-Slate. The initial contact lead to frequent submissions of news and announcements from each organization. I found it extremely satisfying to be presenting AAUS members with an additional benefit while providing exposure for dive organizations. The E-Slate proved to be an efficient tool in getting information on events, recalls, scholarships, and news and announcements to AAUS members in a timely manner. The effort also provided me with several professional contacts in the dive community.I was pleased to be able to continue as editor of the E-Slate upon the completion of my internship. To read current and past E-Slates, visit www.aaus.org.

My time at DISL included many more facets of diving. I am pursuing a minor in leadership and scientific diving at Humboldt State University (HSU). However, I was not yet a scientific diver when I arrived at DISL. This presented some difficulties when it came to diving at the sea lab. DISL is an AAUS Organizational Member (OM) and requires that all divers at the sea lab be certified through an OM. The reciprocity established between AAUS OMs enabled me to dive at DISL as a scientific diver-in-training. Check-out dives were completed to determine my competency as a diver. The DSO and I started in the pool. Later that day, while completing more check-out dives, I was exposed to the low-visibility conditions of Mobile Bay. Coming from the north coast of California, I am somewhat familiar with low-visibility diving. However, the dives we logged were a completely new experience for me. One of our tasks was to remove instrument clamps from a buoy that had broken free from its mooring and was found floating freely offshore. For the first time, I was underwater with a hammer and wrenches. A few weeks later, I was part of a dive team that went searching for the instruments that had been attached to the buoy. We used a sweep line to search for the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) that was lying somewhere on the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, we did not find the ADCP, but I did employ a search technique I had not been able to practice in California. Soon after my first few dives at DISL I took a nitrox course, something I had wanted to do for a while. The course provided me with more dive knowledge and a chance to go diving and collect more PDE Data for DAN.

My time in the office often recessed for field time. If there was an opportunity to help with research projects, I leapt out of the office. I learned how to fish, another first, and also how to measure total length, standard length, and fork length of fish; how to tag fish; and more importantly how to hold a fish that could easily pierce through skin with its spines. I helped deploy a plankton sampler, rinsed and sorted plankton, and learned how to sex shrimp. I participated in a Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) excursion. SEAMAP is a federal program for collection, management, and dissemination of fishery-independent data and information in the southeastern United States. My time in the field allowed me to see the types of research being conducted in a different part of the nation and in very different ecosystems than what I have been exposed to in northern California. My decisions regarding my education, research, graduate schools, and careers will be heavily influenced by my experiences in Alabama. Interacting with students, captains, and professors in the field was a wonderful opportunity applicable to all aspects of my life.
Back on land, I continued to compile diving news for the E-Slate. I also began to write an article for Alert Diver on the differences between scientific and recreational diving, many of which I was being exposed to first hand. The PDE data I collected was from scientific divers conducting research underwater. The dive profiles collected are very different from what I have logged as a recreational diver, and probably different from most recreational dive profiles. The majority of data collected was from shallow dives, less than 20 ft, lasting anywhere from 10 to 84 minutes. During these dives, divers would surface from one to five times to gather more tools or to install more instruments. Along with depth and time limitations, the tasks of scientific divers heavily influenced the dive profiles.

It was a privilege for me to be working with scientific divers. I gained knowledge that I had not been exposed to as a recreational diver and perhaps would not be exposed to as a scientific diver in northern California. The underwater environment in the Gulf of Mexico sometimes demands different methods and techniques than those used in northern California. I was thrilled to lend a hand on dive operations; it gave me a chance to help the scientific divers who had taught me so much. We eventually found the missing ADCP and brought it back to the sea lab to be cleaned and reattached to the buoy. On another trip, I found a dissolved oxygen probe broken free from its mooring by a barge. I helped install moorings for a graduate student’s research project and dove with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

By joining forces with AAUS and DISL, DAN created a unique experience for those interested in dive safety, scientific diving, and marine science. I think this collaboration proves that it is possible to come together and work efficiently and produce rewarding results. While I am very proud of what we accomplished this summer, I hope I contributed to more than just immediate products. The lines of communication between DAN, AAUS, and DISL have been expanded, and I hope that because of the success of this internship the organizations continue to collaborate.

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