Living and working in the cold - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 248

Box 8.5 Diving

For those stations that run marine biological programmes there are special considerations. At
McMurdo, Rothera, Casey and Mario Zucchelli there are regular diving projects that mean
the stations need decompression chambers and their doctors need expertise in diving
medicine. Each station needs an experienced diving of

cer to manage the activities whilst the
scientists and technicians need to learn new rules. Divers may enter the water by walking in
off a beach but more commonly they travel to dive sites in a small boat or on a sledge towed
over sea ice. They usually wear a dry suit with several layers of clothes beneath it, a hood and
several layers of gloves. Modi ed regulators are used to avoid the gas lines freezing up. Holes

are cut in the ice with chain saws and in some places kept open for long periods with a hut
over them. Often the coldest part of the dive is getting to and from the site - in the water the

1 C)! temperature is only around

Figure 8.24 Decompression

chamber at Rothera. (Credit: Chris
Gilbert BAS)

Figure 8.25 Science research divers

Dug Coons and Henry Kaiser at
New Harbor, diving through ice to
collect specimens. The hole in the sea
ice is normally cut with a chainsaw
and needs to be continually ' shed'
to keep the ice crystals from
coalescing and sealing the hole.
(Credit: Henry Kaiser, NSF)