I found this article about aquariums that allow divers in their tanks. I did this in Epcot a few years ago and while it was interesting it was not, in my opinion, as good as the real thing. Try it and decide for yourself.
Growing number of aquariums open tanks to divers
By WILLIAM KATES |Associated Press Writer- August 30, 2008
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Still enthralled, Debra Kurtz described how a 6-foot-long zebra shark, a predator that patrols the western Pacific and Indian oceans, swam around her head.
Then there was the playful 300-pound, green sea turtle, an endangered species from tropical waters, that kept trying to crawl underneath her as she knelt in the sand.
Her favorites, though, were the angelfish, which clustered around her to take sand showers, swimming through the grains of sand she let slip through her fingers.
Not bad for an hour's worth of scuba diving. The 44-year-old sales and marketing management consultant from Vernon Hills, Ill., was a guest diver at the National Aquarium in Baltimore while on a recent business trip. A growing number of aquariums across the country _ from Denver to Duluth, from Long Island to Tampa _ are opening their exhibit tanks to certified scuba divers.
"It's wildlife I've seen before but not so up-close," Kurtz said. "I've never had so many fish surround me in such a confined area. It was really a unique experience."
There are at least eight major aquariums that allow guest divers _ who are different from the corps of volunteer divers trained and used by many aquariums to help in feeding and tank maintenance _ said Steve Feldman, a spokesman for the Aquarium and Zoological Association, a
Maryland-based accrediting group.
"Aquariums are doing this as a way to compete with other forms of entertainment for the consumer's shrinking dollars, as a way to foster marine education and as a way to help supplement their budgets with additional revenues," Feldman said.
"People want up-close experiences with wild animals," said Feldman, pointing to the popularity of petting and feeding programs at zoos and wildlife parks.
"The exposure is indescribable," said John Harman, owner of the Atlantic Edge dive shop. He helps run the four-year-old guest dive program at the National Aquarium, where divers like Kurtz spend 30 minutes in each the Atlantic Coral Reef and Wings in the Water tanks.
"In an hour of diving, you can get exposure that you wouldn't get in 20 years diving in natural environments. You never would see this many species at one time. The thrill is ... the animals are interactive. They are right there in your mask," said Harman.
Aquarium spokeswoman Jennifer Bloomer said the Baltimore program often is sold out two or three months in advance.
Many aquariums already offer snorkeling and swim-with-the-fish programs. Guest diving programs were first started at Disney's Living Seas exhibit at Epcot in Florida nearly two decades ago, but it wasn't until 2001 that the Florida Aquarium in Tampa became the first not-for profit aquarium to establish a program.
Others have followed in rapid succession as the programs have proven popular among divers, said Doug McNeese, executive director of Scuba Schools International, one of the four main scuba instruction and certification organizations.
At the Florida Aquarium, the guest diving program began as a weekend offering but has grown in popularity each year until last year when it was expanded to seven days a week, said Casey Coy, the aquarium's director of diving operations.
"I can guarantee what you are going to see," Coy said. "I can guarantee the conditions, the temperature of the water, the lack of current, the lack of surf, good visibility.
"What you might notice as an experienced diver is that the reef is fabricated. But it's still fun to watch the fish interact with the reef. They aren't able to discern that. They use it the same way they would use it if you were on a reef in the Keys. If you are looking for green morays, you look under the ledges, you look under the elkhorn coral," Coy said.
The guest divers also tend to attract a crowd when they are in the water, as aquarium visitors stop to watch them in the tanks, Coy said.
Guest diving also has proven "phenomenally" popular at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, where nearly 4,000 people have participated in the program's first two years, said Scot Hulgan, the aquarium's general manager.
"We haven't even put a lot of marketing behind it yet ... word has just gotten round," said Hulgan.
Nearly all aquariums require participants to be scuba certified. One exception is the
Atlantis Marine World Aquarium in Riverhead, N.Y., which started a shark-dive program last June open to anyone over age 12.
However, divers remain inside a cage at all times and wear a full face mask helmet, said Eileen Gerle, the aquarium's director of education. Although it is compressed air, the tank is attached to the cage rather than the diver's back. The full mask also contains a communications system that allows the diver to hear and talk to the dive master, she said.
"We wanted a program open to everyone, not just divers, but we also wanted an easy introduction so guests could get their feet wet diving and maybe decide to pursue it," she said.
Programs vary. Some aquariums allow divers to use some of their own equipment, others provide all or part, including a wetsuit. All include some type of educational session, mostly to help divers identify the fish they will see.
There have been no reported safety incidents involving divers but some scientists and animal welfare groups have questioned the stress placed on the fish and marine mammals.
"It's best to see these creatures in the ocean," said John McCosker, an ichthyologist and chairman of Aquatic Biology for the California Academy of Sciences who spent 22 years as director of the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.
"But the fish are already in an aquarium so I'm not sure how much of a negative impact there would be ... as long as it's done in a controlled, managed and responsible way," said McCosker.
A number of major aquariums _ the New York Aquarium, the New England Aquarium in Boston and the
Shedd Aquarium in Chicago _ do not offer guest diving.
"It's a great moneymaker for aquariums, no question about it," said Dick Blankfein, the dive safety officer at the New York Aquarium. Blankfein said it places "undue stress on the animals."
"It also puts undue stress on me as a dive safety officer," he said, "because I have no idea the abilities of the people who would come in as guest divers."
