Last week, student divers at Dauphin Island Sea Lab got in the Halloween spirit by carving pumpkins underwater.
But the interactive event wasn’t just about the holiday; it was an exercise for divers to use different tools while scuba diving as part of an academic scientific diver training course.
“That class takes people who are already qualified and trains them to a higher level so that they can safely and efficiently execute science underwater,” said Christopher Rigaud, diving safety officer at Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
Rigaud said diving within the confined space, like the pool, can be challenging, said Rigaud. Then there are the carving tools and pumpkins.
“How are you going to carve a large gourd pumpkin underwater with a sharp object and your body nearby? How are you going to execute that safely so they have to plan all aspects of the dive,” he added.
One of the first things to realize is that pumpkins are buoyant.
“You can't take an uncarved pumpkin underwater. It would be very nearly impossible to do so,” said Rigaud. “They have to figure out that there's a little bit of pre-carving in preparation that takes place. They can actually put a weight in it, take the uncarved pumpkin underwater, and then finish in the exhibit.”
As divers were carving, an audience watched, trying to guess what was being carved into the pumpkins. Given that it’s the Sea Lab, the characters carved in the pumpkins were aquatic — a puffer fish and a sea turtle.
Dauphin Island Sea Lab was founded in 1971 to create more opportunities for marine science research. Their scientific diving program is in accordance with American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) standards. University of West Florida’s Dive Safety Program is also a member of AAUS.
Sea Lab students will do more than pumpkin carving when they’ve completed training.
“We train them so they can take that science and apply it out in the Gulf of Mexico in the waters in Mobile Bay or exotic locations where they conduct scientific research, like Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the Caribbean,” said Rigaud. “The mission of the sea lab simply puts the scientist in the water so they can execute their work.”