Dive Tending 101: One of my favorite jobs so far here at Palmer Station has been dive tending for a trip to East Litchfield Island. My dive tending career started with a dock dive, where Chuck and Maggie wanted to test out some repairs to diving equipment and dry suites, also this would allow them to pick up some pieces of debris from the station that had gone into the inlet.
First dive tending for a dock dive.
No one is allowed onto a boat at Palmer Station without having Boating One course. This course introduces you to the zodiacs and Ridged Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIB’s), which are the main boats used at Palmer Station. The RHIB’s have been put away already for the winter season, and so I will not be allowed to go out on those during my expedition. I have not received the Boater Two instruction, so I am strictly a dive tender until early next week. The dock dive gave me a great opportunity to try out the gear I would actually use on the boat, without the worry of being too cold or hot for too long.
During the dock dive, CJ taught me how to follow the bubbles, so I will know what to look for while we are diving from the boat. Another very important lesson I learned was to keep watch for seals, but especially leopard seals that can attack divers and which the divers need to be notified about using an underwater alarm system that tells the divers to immediately return to the boat. CJ and I had a bit of a scare, when we spotted a seal near the divers, but after it surfaced once or twice we could tell it was a relatively harmless crabeater seal. The next step was to dive tend a zodiac dive.
A very important job of the dive tender is getting the gloves on the diver.
We had two divers on boat with us and three tenders, since I was a newbie. On-boat tenders are responsible for helping the divers get their weight belts, tanks, respirators on and off before and after the dives, putting gloves on the divers and of course keeping a watchful eye out for leopard seals
Maggie completely covered with gear to keep the water out and away from her body.
Maggie ready to go overboard.
Today's Question comes from Alexie Shaw:
What is the coolest thing you have learned so far?
Alexie Shaw's question card.
I learned the other day that deep sea crabs can't come to the surface because there is a layer of cold water midway up the ocean that knocks out the nervous system of these crabs and they suffocate, but this thermocline is slowly warming which will allow these huge crabs to come to the surface and that will completely change the ecosystem at the surface.
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