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Concept
Wreck diving
Summary
Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. The term is used mainly by recreational and technical divers. Professional divers, when diving on a shipwreck, generally refer to the specific task, such as salvage work, accident investigation or archaeological survey. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificial reef sites. Diving to crashed aircraft can also be considered wreck diving. The recreation of wreck diving makes no distinction as to how the vessel ended up on the bottom.
Some wreck diving involves penetration of the wreckage, making a direct ascent to the surface impossible for a part of the dive.
A shipwreck may be attractive to divers for several reasons:
it serves as an artificial reef, which creates a habitat for many types of marine life
it often is a large structure with many interesting parts and machinery, which is not normally accessible to casual observers on working, floating vessels
it often has an interesting history
it presents new skill challenges for scuba divers to manage the risks associated with wreck penetration.
it is part of the underwater cultural heritage and may be an important archaeological resource
it provides a first-hand insight into context for the loss, such as causal connections, geographical associations, trade patterns and many other areas, providing a microcosm of our maritime heritage and maritime history
it may contain artifacts of historical, artistic and/or monetary value, which can be recovered for profit (treasure hunting) or collection purposes (ranging from rare collector's items to souvenirs, memorabilia or other "trophies", such as crew members' or passengers' personal belongings, nautical instruments, brass portholes or silverware, cutlery, intact china or other tableware).
In The Advanced Wreck Diving Handbook, Gary Gentile sub-divides wreck diving into three categories:
Non-penetration diving (i.e.
Official source
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