Scuba diving may be performed for a number of reasons, both personal and
professional. Most people begin through recreational diving, which is performed
purely for enjoyment and has a number of distinct technical disciplines to increase interest
underwater, such as cave
diving, wreck diving,
ice diving and deep diving.
Divers may be employed professionally to perform tasks underwater.
Most of these commercial divers are employed to perform tasks related to the
running of a business involving deep water, including civil engineering
tasks such as in oil exploration, underwater
welding or offshore construction. Commercial divers
may also be employed to perform tasks specifically related to marine activities,
such as naval diving, including the repair and inspection
of boats and ships, salvage of wrecks or underwater fishing, like spear
fishing.
Other specialist areas of diving include military diving, with a
long history of military frogmen in various roles. They can perform roles
including direct combat, infiltration behind enemy lines, placing mines or using
a manned
torpedo, bomb
disposal or engineering operations. In civilian operations, many police
forces operate police
diving teams to perform search and recovery or search and rescue operations
and to assist with the detection of crime which may involve bodies of water. In
some cases diver rescue
teams may also be part of a fire department or lifeguard unit.
Lastly, there are professional divers involved with the water itself, such as
underwater
photography or underwater filming divers, who set out to document the
underwater world, or scientific diving, including marine biology and underwater
archaeology.
Reasons for diving may include:
