page_title: Diving safety
section_title: Saturation diving
hierarchical_section_title: Diving safety / Hazard control / Saturation diving
caption_attribution_description: English: 010707-N-3093M-003 Atlantic Ocean (July 7, 2001) -- The Personnel Transfer Capsule (PTC) is raised to the surface of the Atlantic after an eight-hour dive on the historic wreck site of the USS Monitor off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The PTC is part of a civilian saturation dive system leased by the U.S. Navy and transported to the site aboard the Derrick Barge &#8220;Wotan&#8221;. The Barge is serving as the main support vessel for Phase II of the Monitor 2001 Expedition, the sixth expedition by the Navy and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to preserve the historic vessel. The saturation system maintains the divers inside under pressure for days at a time so they may work without decompressing between dives. The PTC is their taxi between the topside saturation living quarters and the work site some 240 feet below the surface. U.S. Navy Photo by Chief Photographer&#8217;s Mate Andrew Mckaskle. (RELEASED)
context_page_description: Diving safety is the aspect of underwater diving operations and activities concerned with the safety of the participants. The safety of underwater diving depends on four factors: the environment, the equipment, behaviour of the individual diver and performance of the dive team. The underwater environment can impose severe physical and psychological stress on a diver, and is mostly beyond the diver's control. Equipment is used to operate underwater for anything beyond very short periods, and the reliable function of some of the equipment is critical to even short term survival. Other equipment allows the diver to operate in relative comfort and efficiency. The performance of the individual diver depends on learned skills, many of which are not intuitive, and the performance of the team depends on competence, communication and common goals.
  There is a large range of hazards to which the diver may be exposed. These each have associated consequences and risks, which should be taken into account during dive planning.
context_section_description: Decompression sickness occurs when a diver with a large amount of inert gas dissolved in the body tissues is decompressed to a pressure where the gas forms bubbles which may block blood vessels or physically damage surrounding cells. This is a risk on every decompression, and limiting the number of decompressions can reduce the risk.
  "Saturation" refers to the fact that the diver's tissues have absorbed the maximum partial pressure of gas possible for that depth due to the diver being exposed to breathing gas at that pressure for prolonged periods. This is significant because once the tissues become saturated, the time to ascend from depth, to decompress safely, will not increase with further exposure.
  In saturation diving, the divers live in a pressurized environment, which can be a saturation system - a hyperbaric environment on the surface - or an ambient pressure underwater habitat. This may continue for up to several weeks, usually with the divers living at the same or very similar ambient pressure to the work site, and they are decompressed to surface pressure only once, at the end of their tour of duty. By limiting the number of decompressions in this way, the risk of decompression sickness is significantly reduced at the cost of exposing the diver to other hazards associated with living under high pressure for prolonged periods. Saturation diving is an example of substitution of a hazard expected to present a lower risk than surface oriented diving for the same set of operations.
caption: Saturation divers are transferred under pressure between the living quarters and the work site in a closed bell
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