The three members of the BSEE Dive Team completed their annual certifications and earned more specialized proficiency certifications in the last month to be ready for any BSEE underwater requirements, reported Dive Team Leader Chris Horrell.
Horrell’s full-time job at BSEE is Marine Archeologist assigned to Environmental Enforcement Division. Like the other dive team members, the ability to operator underwater enhances their contribution to the BSEE mission and is voluntary.
For this year’s proficiency and dive certifications, the team dived on the sunken aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, the battleship USS Massachusetts, the Russian Freighter, and the Three Barges, all off the Florida coast. They also conducted diver rescue drills and limited visibility and entanglement drills to keep their skills high in the environments where they might be called upon. Divers from the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) also certified with the BSEE team.
In addition to training and certifications, the annual dives allow team members to test their equipment and communication procedures. This year they also trained on a new underwater camera. BSEE Environmental Enforcement Division’s Dive Team enables undersea activities including site investigations, verifications, natural and cultural resource damage assessments, mitigation effectiveness and assessments, determinations of criminal intent, documenting and issuing Incidents of Non-Compliance, value and cost determinations, identification and documentation of resource elements, historic research and background documentation, and other processes as they are developed. BSEE Scientific Dive Team members also work in concert with BOEM and other Federal Dive Teams in an effort to facilitate inter-agency cooperation as well as engage in further training and enhancing the Dive Team’s capabilities.
[mappress] Subsea World News Staff , June 22, 2012; Image: BSEE