1st European Conference on Scientific Diving

In 1964 in Genua, the CMAS General Assembly decided to set-up the Scientific Committee. Their main object was to act as coordinator for the exchange of information between scientists interested in skin-diving techniques, to support exchanges between these research workers and, generally, serve all scientists working in the fields of underwater sciences.

In the third edition of the annual documentation (1974-75) the former President of the Scientific Committee stated that the aims are to provide links between diving scientists who use the aqualung in their investigations, to link associations or organizations specializing in underwater research or wishing particualarly to devote themselves to scientific diving or scientific diving applications, and to contribute to the scientific training of divers. This goal is just as valid today as it was some decades ago.

Therefore, one of the major objectives of the 1st European Conference on Scientific Diving was to bring together scientific divers from different countries and research fields and discuss their own experiences as scientific divers as well as common problems, challenges and interests.
The diversity of more than 40 participants from 9 countries in this conference allowed the exchange of knowledge between biologists, geologists and archaeologists as well as senior and junior investigators. The conference supported reflection on the current state of the field, and potential future directions for underwater research. Participants at the conference included the former President oft he CMAS Scientific Committee Prof. Manuel Martin-Bueno from the University of Zaragoza, Spain; CMAS Director Scientific Diving, Dr. Sergey Fazlullin from the Shirshov’s Institute of Oceanology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia; President of the Scientific Committee of the Egyptain and Portuguese CMAS Federation; CMAS archaeologists from the Croation CMAS Federation CMAS; Scientific Diving Center (GERS00) University of Resources in Freiberg, Germany; CMAS Scientific Diving Center (GERS01) University of Stuttgart, Germany and CMAS Scientific Diving Center (ESPS00) Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

The 2nd European Conference on Scientific Diving will take place from 9-11 May 2016 in Sweden, organized in collaboration between the University of Gotheburg and the marine archeologists at Bohusläns museum.