{"id":2073,"date":"2008-12-08T13:47:30","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T17:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2015-03-12T11:37:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T15:37:06","slug":"safety-comes-first-for-uconns-director-of-scientific-diving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2008\/12\/safety-comes-first-for-uconns-director-of-scientific-diving\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety Comes First for UConn’s Director of Scientific Diving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Diving<\/a>
Diving safety officer Jeffrey Godfrey prepares an underwater camera for a dive. Photos supplied by Jeffrey Godfrey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His job has a simple bottom line. Or rather, line to the bottom. Everyone who goes down must come up.<\/p>\n

But for Jeffrey Godfrey, director of scientific diving for UConn\u2019s marine sciences programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, getting to the bottom and back up again requires planning, planning, and more planning. Training and more training. Testing and re-testing of equipment. And even calling the dive off when things don\u2019t look exactly right.<\/p>\n

Ensuring Safety<\/h3>\n

Godfrey says safety is the first order of business on any of the 400 to 500 scientific dives undertaken each year by UConn faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.<\/p>\n

The dives take place in locations around the world, including Japan, Antarctica, Australia, the Caribbean, the Gulf of California, and even Long Island Sound: \u201cAnywhere there\u2019s water,\u201d Godfrey says.<\/p>\n

Hazards to divers include running out of air, diving too deeply or too long for the equipment, wildlife, and especially boats, which may not heed the red and white flag that warns of divers below.<\/p>\n

The problems vary with the location of the diving. Training dives, which take place right off Avery Point, face hazards from murky water, boats, and potentially also airplanes from nearby Groton-New London Airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to get separated in the water in Long Island Sound,\u201d Godfrey says. \u201cIt\u2019s not like diving in the Caribbean, where there\u2019s 100 feet of visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientific divers must be certified, and the regulations are more stringent than those for recreational divers. Certification requires 100 hours of training, one open water snorkel dive, and four deep water dives to ensure safety.<\/p>\n