POSTER SESSION - SPONSORED BY THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Under-Ice Research and the International Polar Diving Workshop

Summary

Approximately four decades ago scientists were first able to enter the undersea polar environment to make biological observations for a nominal period of time. Since those first ice dives in wetsuits without buoyancy compensators and double-hose regulators without submersible pressure gauges, technology has advanced. Today’s scientific ice divers have the potential of extending their observational and experimental depths and times to limits never before available. Novel ice diving techniques have expanded the working envelope based on scientific need to include use of dive computers, oxygen-enriched air, rebreather units, blue-water diving, and dry suit systems. With the advent of new technology, greater scientific productivity is achieved while maintaining the scientific diving community’s exemplary safety record. The basis for this diving safety research project was the 1991 Polar Diving Workshop (Lang and Stewart, eds., 1992, available online at www.si.edu/dive), supported by NSF, Smithsonian Institution, and the American Academy of Underwater Sciences. Fifteen years of experience later we confronted the need to re-evaluate and update those 22 polar diving recommendations through the combined international, interdisciplinary expertise of participating polar diving scientists, manufacturers of dry suits and thermal protection, physiologists and decompression experts, and diving safety officers. In preparation for the International Polar Year (March 2007-2009), an increased level of attention was focused on the Arctic and Antarctic, and this project constituted a contribution from the international polar scientific diving community.

Related Document

Speakers

Ms. Helen Campbell SCADM Deputy Chief Officer, United Kingdom
Alan Cooper U.S. Geological Survey
Peter Barrett Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University, New Zealand
Robert DeConto Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts
Robert Dunbar Environmental Earth Systems Science, Stanford University
Carlota Escutia Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (IACT), Spain
Dr. Martin Seigert Head of the School of GeoSciences
Nigel Wardell Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, Italy
Jon Childs U.S. Geological Survey
John Hocevar Oceans Director
Allison Kole Campaigns Assistant, Science and the Governance of International Commons
Igor Krupnik Smithsonian Institution
Mr. Michael Lang Director, Smithsonian Marine Science Network; Director, Smithsonian Scientific Diving program; Office of the Under Secretary for Science, Smithsonian Institution, United States
Scott E. Miller Smithsonian Institution
Mr. Michael Lang Director, Smithsonian Marine Science Network; Director, Smithsonian Scientific Diving program; Office of the Under Secretary for Science, Smithsonian Institution, United States
Martin Sayer NERC Facility for Scientific Diving, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, United Kingdom
Rafael Lemaitre Smithsonian Institution
Valery Lukin Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Russian Antarctic Expedition
Robert A. McCabe
Anita Dey Nuttall Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta
Frank Rack ANDRILL Science Management Office, University of Nebraska Lincoln
Laura De Santis Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale GS, Italy
Richard Levy GNS Science, New Zealand
Tim Naish Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Robert DeConto Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts
Carlota Escutia Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (IACT), Spain
Tina Tin Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC)
Rupert Summerson Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Professor David Walton Professor Emeritus, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Julie A Hambrook Berkman Foundation for the Good Governance of International Spaces
Dr. Michele Zebich-Knos Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA

Schedule

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