I'm so glad you've found my channel useful!

I am a UXO tech now, completely unrelated. This really speaks to my passion though. Is an undergrad necessary? I was on the fence about whether to go to DIT for commercial diving (underwater welding) or to go the science diver route. Any advice is VERY much appreciated!

Good vid and very interesting. But while a looked at it to see how it works in the US, I saw this comment. It looks like you didn't get a reply, so I'll give you one: No. Not in the UK anyway. To do 'marine science' you have to be an excellent diver - the diving is your 'ride to work'. Then you do the science. To get paid to dive at work you need CMAS 3* or equivalent qualification. Google it - it's a Europaean thing but PADI and Naui quallies are listed as equivalents - I think 'dive Master' is the minimum). Or in the UK you can go and get an HSE (Health and Safety Executive) Part 4 commercial scuba cert. A week's course, which you pay for . You can get this from scratch, but it's bloody hard work unless you are already a competent diver. Covers dry suits, full face masks, roped diving, comms, independent air sources and stuff. Like the man says, you can always do your own independent research. You can do this with recreational quallies under recreational rules, working with other like-minded recreational divers. In the UK, this happens quite a lot. My published papers (gray literature and peer reviewed) were done this way and with 'Seasearch'. Seasearch is run by the Marine Conservation Society. If you meet their qually standards, you can go on their organised dives or use their training (delivered at cost) to do your own work, submitting data on their forms, which will then go in a UK data base. This is 'citizen science' and the Seasearch training gets you to a level where it cannot be argued that your data is 'not reliable'. You can also volunteer with university diving groups in the UK. But you must be qualified and capable and able to prove it. This gets you on their boats, participating in their work with the cost of boat, etc. paid for. But you must be prepared to pay your way initially. The niche you are filling is 'capable and reliable diver' in a context of a lot of students participating (or wanting to) in Uni diving. Bless 'em they tend to disappear when they get capable, 'cos they graduate and have to find a job. Hard to get into, but you can. Helps that in the UK you will be diving in poor viz and cold-ish water that is often rough. And rainy. A drysuit is pretty well essential. Still have a lot of people wanting to do diving, but not as many as in (say) Florida. In the UK there is also a route in with the Nautical Archaeological Society if biology isn't your thing. So, you don't have to have marine science quallies to be a scientific diver. I don't and I get paid as a freelance biological surveyor. You don't have to have a degree (I do, but its not marine). A science background makes it easier but what you really need is a desire to do the work and be an excellent diver. And be bloody stubborn about wanting to do it. Click on the logo and watch the obvious vid to find out more about what it's like in the UK. NB: channel is not monetised. There are other vids on there on other UK marine ecological topics. None advertise anything. Hope this helps

I can definitely try! PADI and the AAUS science diving cert can sometimes go along with one another, as you need to at least be an open water diver before starting the AAUS course.

@@oceanscholar Oh, ok. Wow, so it's really that hard. You need an open water cert and then go for the AAUS.