21st century diving

FUTURE SHOCK

Virtual instructors, genetically modified whales, breathing computers, artificial gills: as the 21st century dawns, Brendan O'Brien gazes ahead and asks whether our diving future will be one to relish or dread

"The reality of diving without the nasty bits" is how the web had described this site, and now I can see why. As I descend the perfectly vertical wall, I stop for a moment to examine the magnificent collection of vibrant corals and sponges. At 30m, I can just see the top of the pinnacle ahead of me. Around its peak, hundreds of brightly-coloured fish contrast against the darkness of the blue.
This is indeed a breathtaking dive, but I still haven't seen what I am really looking for. I will have to drop deeper. Soon, out of the blue, at a depth of 100m, I see the two humpback whales gliding gracefully past the base of the pinnacle.
I remember my father telling me how he had seen humpback whales while free-diving off the coast of Bermuda and how the experience had changed his life. What he told me that day became my favourite dream - in it, I would look into their eyes and share the mysteries of the ocean.
Sadly, this will always remain a dream. As I gaze into the eyes of these whales, I can see that there are no mystical secrets lying behind them. They are one of the UN Marine Protectorate's greatest successes and the result of man's greatest failure.
These genetically-modified leviathans will never experience the thrill of the open ocean. They will spend the rest of their lives as an attraction for the families that now gaze at them through the 100m viewing platform. The oceanarium in which I am diving suddenly becomes a reminder of what we chose to destroy.

The future of diving? Perhaps another century from now, or perhaps only a couple of decades on? As we accelerate into the new millennium, can we be sure that there will be anything left for our children or grandchildren to see? And before I'm accused of standing on an environmental soapbox, it might be worth taking a look at what's going on here and now.

Take the Californian grey whale that now thrives along the western coastline of the Americas. It was saved from extinction only by a hunting ban in 1946. Over the decades, its numbers have grown to a point at which scientists now believe that the population is out of danger.
It would seem, however, that its comeback might be short-lived. Thousands of these creatures are likely to have to run a gauntlet as they travel south past the Gulf of Alaska to their calving grounds in the lagoons of western Mexico.
On 17 May, 1999, the US government allowed the Makah Indian tribe to kill a grey whale on the grounds of cultural necessity. Off the Washington state coastline, the tribe's hunters used traditional .577 calibre slugs to kill a female juvenile. War was once again declared on the cetacean nation.
Decades of whale conservation efforts may have been fruitless, as countries such as Japan, Norway, Iceland and Canada queue up to follow the US example and resume whaling on "cultural grounds".
As the same grey whales reach their traditional calving grounds, they may find that they no longer exist. San Ignacio lagoon, one of the largest calving areas, has been earmarked by the Mexican Government to become a vast salt factory. The lagoon, used by whales for thousands of years, will soon become another victim of industrial advancement.
The plight of the grey whales isn't an isolated case. We should remind ourselves of mankind's efforts to destroy the oceans. Sam Pollard of the Marine Conservation Society has a bleak message for us: "Although it's true that we have a better knowledge and understanding of the marine environment, this is unfortunately outbalanced by an increased demand for marine resources."
I asked her what she believes the greatest threats are in the UK. "Over-fishing, the vigorous input of waste products, the dredging for aggregates from the seabedÉ our coastline can take only so much."
So will we have to keep the ocean's marine life from extinction in giant oceanariums? And is this where we'll be diving in the future?
There are already plans to build a 30m-deep artificial dive site in the UK and most large aquariums now allow people to dive in their tanks. Combining these two concepts could produce the oceanariums of the future.
These vast dive sites may be the last places left in which to experience shallow-water dives. Sam Pollard says of diving tourism: "Its unchecked development could spell the end for reef systems. Sadly, the diving community is creating a demand that is destroying many of the world's reefs."
Before you write these views off as extreme, think about what has happened in areas such as Eilat and Sharm el Sheikh, where once-vibrant reef systems have already been destroyed by the effects of diving tourism.
Mark Caney, the head of PADI UK, remains optimistic. He thinks the divers of the future will play a vital part in marine conservation. "As the number of divers across the world increases, so does their role. Divers tend to be very environmentally aware. As we see the effects of the foolish things that people are doing, we'll become humanity's watchdog for the oceans."

It isn't going to be too long before my dream of open-ocean diving comes true. A few days after the dive in the oceanarium, I start my training for my next trip. In the comfort of my home, my buddy and I help each other on with our equipment. We step inside the VR tank on loan from the dive school and are instantly connected to our virtual dive guide. We start the simulation of our destination's diving.
Will pool instruction eventually become obsolete? Already, we can do a lot of our training as distance-learning in the comfort of our own homes. Mark Caney thinks this may be the reality of diver training in the future. "We're going to see a lot more interactive training, certainly with virtual instructors. Maybe within 10 years, intelligent software linked with special suits and a virtual reality pod will lead to a dive where you don't have to get wet.
"It will be the Gameboy of the future, with tremendous advantages for training. All sorts of risky situations could be simulated in very realistic conditions."

We are training on rebreathers. My father told me how far rebreather technology had come over the past few decades. He remembered the first rather clumsy examples. What amazes me is how they managed to dive with these complex units. They had to plan and mix gases and you should have seen all the equipment they had to carry. If you've got an old PC, you can still look up old back issues of Diver before it went virtual. There you'll see 2D pictures of what it used to be like - those things must have been really heavy.
There is no doubt that the clumsiness of both today's open-circuit and rebreather equipment is going to be tidied up. Mares has already brought out a hoseless breathing system that integrates first and second stages with a buoyancy compensator.
David Fowler, an equipment designer for Apeks, believes that this will be the future for equipment configuration. "I think we're going to see more elegant and compact solutions. It's not really necessary to have gauges and hoses floating around.
"We'll start to see materials become available from other fields, such as carbon fibre and specialist aluminium. This will mean smaller and lighter equipment. For example, carbon-fibre cylinders that weigh a couple of kilos and have an operating pressure of 900 bar are now being designed for firefighters.
"If all the equipment we carry around now was integrated into one small module, it would be much more efficient. You could even have plug-ins and add-ons, such as underwater propulsion systems."
Perhaps if we are to see true advances, there is a need to redesign diving equipment from scratch. What would happen if we took some scientists and engineers from other fields, then gave them the problems? Would their solutions differ from what we're using now?
One thing that seems certain is the increased use of rebreather technology. It has transformed diving and will continue to do so," Martin Parker from AP Valves says of the rebreather.
David Fowler believes that closed-circuit rebreathers have "enormous benefits over open circuit." And Joost Loomans from Dräger says: "Soon people will learn to dive using a rebreather. We're already working with organisations like PADI to achieve this."
Mark Caney agrees: "I can well imagine that, years down the line, rebreathers will have taken over from open circuit."
For an independent viewpoint on rebreather technology, I spoke to Gavin Anthony, a principal scientist working on diving and life-support systems with the Ministry of Defence's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). "The use of rebreathers will grow and the technology used within them will continue to advance," he says. "Microprocessors will play a big part, not only in rebreathers, but in all aspects of diving. They aren't fully exploited in diving yet - they're just starting to be used in military and commercial systems.
"For the rebreather, this could mean that there will be better systems for controlling the gas mixes. While you're underwater, it will precisely monitor and control what and how much gas you use."
Martin Parker reflects these views: "What we're looking for now is a way of making the rebreather fully automatic, with auto-calibration systems. That and maybe the use of molecular sieves and gas-exchange membranes to absorb CO2."
Joost Loomans doesn't want the Dräger rebreather to become too technologically advanced: "Computers should be used as a way of checking the unit's use, but not to control it. We believe that the rebreather should be easy to use." And Gavin Anthony comments: "At the moment, the rebreather is still a bit of a faff and if you don't get it right, you don't get a second chance." Ultimately, as Martin Parker, reminds us: "Whatever advanced systems are in place, you still have to rely on the diver turning the valves on!"
What about membranes - will they play a part in the future in diving? "There's still a long way to go, but as the range and quality of commercial membranes increases, there may be a way to use them in diving, primarily for absorbing CO2 from expired air and replacing it with O2," says Gavin Anthony. "It would behave like an artificial gill."
Martin Parker sees incredible advantages in such a system: "You would need only one cylinder. Even more advanced, though, would be a liquid that gave up O2 and absorbed CO2 as easily as blood absorbs O2 and gives up CO2." I ask Martin if this could lead to divers breathing liquid - the concept introduced in the film The Abyss. "I'm sorry, but that concept is too fanciful for words!"
Gavin has little to say on the subject of liquid breathing, so I ask David Fowler if he thinks this would be a possibility, "I believe the MOD has already done tests on liquid breathing with pigs and goats," he says.
Before you get too excited, it would seem that evolution has gone some way to closing the door on this as an option for diving. David explains the results of these tests: "The liquid stripped all the mucus membrane from the lungs of the subjects. They all died from massive lung infections."
So while we might never get around to breathing liquid or not, it would appear that before too long the rebreather will make open circuit seem as obsolete as twin-hose regulators from the 1960s.

As I look over the side of the platform, I watch the waves of the open ocean crash against the sides. Under the surface of this wild sea is the accommodation unit that is going to be our home for the next two weeks. At a depth of 60m, the Brent Hotel in the North Atlantic Marine Park holds the record for the deepest five-star dive centre in the world. From there, we will have a week to explore the wreckage of what was once a giant oil-drilling platform.
Our world becomes a smaller place, our demand for experiences greater. Where will there be left to dive once we've exhausted the shallows? And will there be anything left to see above 100m?
"Most of the big shallow-water destinations will have been visited by a large percentage of divers, but I can see trends developing that will take divers ever-deeper into the 100m-plus range," says Mark Caney. "What we'll find emerging is a new category of dive tourism.
"Holidays will be spent living in underwater habitats used as a base for deep dives." This is nothing new; in Florida, there is already an underwater habitat in which you can stay overnight and Jacques Cousteau had people living underwater in his Conshelf projects in the '60s, but Mark goes on to say: "I'm thinking of something bigger and deeper. As technology makes them economically viable, I'm sure we'll see diving hotels perhaps half-under and half-above the water in 30 metres-plus."

The oil rigs of the past century were allowed to collapse to the seabed after the fossil fuels ran out. I could never understand why they left it this late before they started to fully harness the wind and ocean for power. The history websites said it was all for financial reasons. At what cost? Despite being January in the North Sea, it's still sweltering hot.
Wouldn't this be the final irony, if areas like these were among the only ones to escape the ravages of industry's incursion into our oceans? Today, each oil rig has an area around it preventing access to unauthorised shipping.
Would it surprise you to know that the protected zone around Skomer Marine Reserve in the UK isn't much bigger?
Is this the best we can do? In the UK, we have only three such statutory marine reserves. Across the rest of our coastline we're busy removing marine life at what many believe is an unsustainable rate. And if we're not taking from the sea, we're putting all sorts of waste into it. At some point, our coastline is going to give up.
Could marine parks help to protect what's down there for the divers of the future? I spoke to Tom Van't Hoff, the designer and manager of some of the world's most successful marine parks, including the world's first park around the island of Bonaire.
He believes the answer lies not in simply protecting areas of outstanding beauty: "We need to focus more on protecting large areas using zoning, by having specific areas for shipping, tourism, diving, fishing and industrial usage. This would mean that the management and control would be the responsibility of one agency."
Industry continues to trawl our seas of their bounty, drill through the seabed, dredge for aggregates and dump toxic waste. Do we need to create something bigger than our present marine reserves? After all, there are National Parks near to where you live which are bigger than the area of ocean currently protected.

My buddy and I are ready to leave the habitat for open water. We're part of a small group led by the resident guide. Well, led in the loosest sense of the word. Dive guides never get wet these days. She'll direct the dive from the control room. We know that whatever happens out there, we can't get lost.
Gavin Anthony believes that the introduction of a personal computer into the diver's kitbag will transform the way we dive. "It's not rocket science. This is equipment available now - it just needs adapting for use under water.
"For example, you could have a navigation system using underwater beacons or an inertial system called an accelerometer that detects movement through space relevant to where you jumped in. Using systems like these, you could never get lost.
"A computer could present all this information and more, such as dive/decompression profiles, 3D maps and enhanced images using sonar for low visibility. All of this could be displayed in a mask using a head-up display, basically a projected image on the mask lens. The computer could even talk to you." (Talking computers are not new, of course, but until now the idea of a machine whispering in a diver's ear has only a limited welcome).
But computers of the future will have a lot to say, not only on a dive but once back at the dive centre, when they provide a full debriefing on your underwater activities. Data on your dives can be downloaded into a central database to provide detailed profiles of dive sites on which future dives can be planned.
David Fowler believes the use of computers will be much increased in other ways. "I can see fuzzy-logic control systems being used. Essentially, these are computers that can learn. They could control airflow through first and second stages, a bit like a fuel injector in a car.
"What they could do for you as an individual is provide you with only the amount of air you need, which would be a lot more efficient.
"Technology such as this is out there. What it needs is for someone to put together two things that already exist and see what happens."
If this technology is available, why aren't we seeing it on the market? Cost would be the obvious answer, but David Fowler believes it's not that simple. "No one wants to take the risk. Manufacturers ask themselves: "Do I innovate and reap the rewards?' And then they ask themselves: "But what if it doesn't take off? The recall and its problems will ruin me.' Instead, they wait for someone else to innovate and then follow them if it works."
Innovation occurs, nonetheless, sometimes as a result of adapting technology from elsewhere. For example, night vision for divers is already a reality, thanks to twin image intensifiers mounted on a full-face mask. Designed for commercial and military use by an Israeli design company, its use enables the wearer to see up to 50m in low-light conditions.

We choose to dive with rebreather modules and wetsuits. In the chamber next to us, the rest of our group are using pressure suits. I can see the disdainful looks in their eyes; they look on us as traditionalists living in the dark ages. I don't care what they think. I like the feeling of water on my body; it makes me feel as if I'm diving and not just in a simulation.
One-atmosphere pressure suits are already in existence. Although they are cumbersome and expensive, Mark Caney thinks that they may have a place for recreational diving in the future: "If they can be manufactured to be more compact, with built-in propulsion units, they will take off. Divers will then have a huge range measured in hundreds of metres."

I stop to wonder where all this technological advancement is going. I have heard a rumour that the UN Peaceforce is working on a system in which you don't have to breathe. The idea came from a surgeon who enjoyed free-diving. After seeing patients during operations stop breathing while a machine re-oxygenated blood, he asked the question, why do we even need to breathe under water?
The rumour is that the divers have a surgical implant enabling them to plug their main arteries and veins into an artificial gill held on their backs. As their blood flows through the machine, it uses a membrane transference system to add oxygen taken out of the water. Carbon dioxide is then absorbed before the blood is returned to their body. They really don't need to breathe any more. With their protection suits on, they can stay underwater for days.
Jacques Cousteau often spoke about the concept of "Homo Aquaticus", human beings living underwater using artificial gills. When you dare to dream, concepts such as these really aren't out of the question. The technology already exists in today's hospitals, allowing blood to be oxygenated outside the body.
A Japanese Government-backed team from the University of Waseda in Tokyo is already developing an artificial gill which it says will be able to extract oxygen from seawater. The team predicts that the unit will be widely accepted by the diving community within a decade. They also expect that they will have developed a prototype within the next two or three years.

As we jump in, I feel the initial chill as the water flows through the protective material of my suit. It soon heats up to match my preferred water temperature. I look around and wait for my computer to go through its in-water checks. My head-up display indicates that I'm clear to dive. We set off towards the first attraction.
A wetsuit that can heat you? "There are intelligent materials that can detect temperature," says David Fowler. "Increasing the resistance of an electric current that flows around the suit would provide you with heat. It would need to be fully sealed with protection circuits. The major benefit, on top of keeping warm, is that they wouldn't need any other thermal properties - you'd have a neutrally buoyant suit."
Could further technological advances be introduced into this suit? Gavin Anthony thinks so: "You could integrate it with a vest that had Doppler transducers built into it. It could tell you how your decompression was going."

Via a 3D map, the dive guide leads us to our first stop - the remains of the platform's superstructure. Within the twisted mass of cranes and old machinery, we see marine life that scurries into holes and crevices as we approach. After all, these are fish that have never known the confines of an aquarium. Unbelievably, throughout the devastation of the past few decades, they have managed to adapt to the changing conditions of our oceans.
There is no doubt that global warming is having an effect on our seas. "Around the UK, we're seeing an increase in warmer-water species such as triggerfish and seahorses," says Sam Pollard. She also believes that marine life is fairly resilient and capable of adapting. "As the currents alter and we outfish certain areas, I believe that predatory species may be relocating. Perhaps the recent great white shark sighting is part of that picture?"

If it wasn't for the UN Worldwide zero tolerance of pollution legislation passed after the first decade, then perhaps these creatures wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have anything to see on this dive.
We allow ourselves to pour toxic materials into the ocean. We allow acceptable levels of pollutants into the same seas that we spend a few hours a day in while we dive. Think about it for a minute: you allow an "acceptable level of pollution" to flow against your skin or be ingested as you swallow small amounts of water. It's like taking a bath in a skin irritant while sipping diluted sewage.
If, like me, you find this a strange concept to accept, you might want to ask yourself: "What am I doing for the future to change this practice?"

As I marvel at the marine life around the giant wreckage of the rig, I hope that we have managed to turn things around in time for our children. What could have been achieved if we had only listened to our oceans as they cried out in agony towards the end of the last century?
Admiring the ocean's ability to adapt and bounce back, I remember a quote from the great ocean explorer Dr Sylvia Earle: "If the sea is sick, we'll feel it. If it dies, we die. Our future and the state of the oceans are one..."

THE FUTURE ACCORDING TO COUSTEAU Who wants a world in which whales are toxic waste? he asks Nigel Eaton It is not surprising that a diver with Jean-Michel Cousteau's background has strong views about the future of diving. "To have a future ourselves, we must protect the future of the seas we dive in," the seasoned environmentalist told Diver during a recent interview in France. "I believe that in the next century we need to focus on five key issues - and develop solutions." Trained as an architect, Jean-Michel has been involved since the mid-1960s with the production of many of the famous "Cousteau" underwater documentaries. In 1979 he joined forces with his late father to develop the Cousteau Society and, despite well-publicised disputes with his father - and later the Cousteau Society - following the death of his mother in 1990, his has been a powerful voice in support of marine conservation ever since. "Our first target must be improving the health of all the waters that we depend on to survive," he said. "Pollutants that we dump into the water system are returned to us through the food we eat. On land, available clean water is being mismanaged on a global scale. Disputes and even wars will intensify over water resources if we don't clean things up. "Secondly, we must look at our coastal habitats. For many marine species - as well as birds and land animals - estuaries, marshlands and mangroves are vital sites for refuge, reproduction and feeding. We must find ways to protect and restore these fragile places." In March last year, Jean-Michel's conservation group, the California-based Jean-Michel Cousteau Institute, merged with the Free Willy Keiko Foundation (formed to rehabilitate the killer whale which starred in the hit movie) to create the Ocean Futures Society. The famous whale is still convalescing and Jean-Michel sees Keiko's battle to regain health and liberty as symbolic of the struggle currently faced by all marine mammals. "Whales, in particular, are an issue, because they are great indicators of the health of the ocean," he says, pointing out that populations of some species such as killer whales are not on the increase, even though they are protected by international law. "Toothed whales eat at the top of the food chain and we find some animals with such high toxicity levels that not only is their ability to reproduce impaired but, according to US federal regulations, they would qualify as "toxic waste'." Better management of fish stocks is the fourth issue highlighted by Jean-Michel. Typically, his approach is realistic. He speaks of "action partnerships with businesses, industries and governments" and describes how food species such as shrimps can be easily farmed in tanks. "There may be some loss of natural flavour," he says, "but we can live with that". Jean-Michel's final concern is one of particular interest to divers. "Coral reefs are being lost," he says. "Already 10 per cent have been destroyed and another 25 to 40 per cent may be lost in the next 25 years." Ocean Futures will, he says, dedicate itself to finding ways to conserve these habitats, which, "although they comprise only 0.1 per cent of the surface of the ocean, have the richest biodiversity anywhere on earth". Beyond these conservation issues - all being championed by Ocean Futures - Jean-Michel Cousteau sees exciting possibilities for divers. Referring to the work of the acclaimed shark researcher Eugenie Clark, he ends on a scientific note: "There are many creatures living in the deep and not-so-deep seas which have not yet been documented. In the coming decades, there will be great finds to be made. I think the numbers will be huge - not in terms of the volume of individuals, but in terms of the volume of species."

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Appeared in DIVER - January 2000