Salvage Diver

Primary qualification

• Spain: professional diving qualification by category — Small-Depth or Medium-Depth Professional Diver for harbour and coastal work, and Great-Depth Diver for interventions with breathing mixtures other than air or saturation. State safety framework: Royal Decree 550/2020; issuance and exact titles depend on regional (CCAA) regulations (to be verified per region).
• Regulated training route in Spain: Technician in Underwater and Hyperbaric Operations (intermediate-level vocational diploma, Royal Decree 1073/2012 — implementation to be verified per region).
• International offshore: IMCA diver grades (surface supplied / closed bell) or an IMCA-recognised national scheme, e.g. UK HSE Part I / Part II (today HSE Surface Supplied and HSE Closed Bell).
• Underwater welding and cutting qualification per AWS D3.6M (Underwater Welding Code) when the job includes classed wet or hyperbaric welding.

Basic STCW

• STCW A-VI/1 Basic Safety Training if signed on as crew of the salvage vessel (embarked dive-team personnel may fall under a different regime depending on flag — to be verified).
• Valid professional-diving medical fitness certificate (specific examination, annual periodicity as a guide — to be verified with the Administration).

Specific courses

• DMT — Diver Medic Technician (IMCA-approved schemes) for immediate medical care of an injured diver.
• Hyperbaric chamber operation and decompression procedures per the applicable diving manual.
• Underwater welding and cutting: wet-stick welding and exothermic/oxy-arc cutting, with welder qualification per AWS D3.6M where classed work is required.
• Underwater inspection/NDT: CSWIP 3.1U (visual inspection and cathodic-potential measurement) or 3.2U where the salvage job requires inspection reports.
• Hot work and confined spaces (tanks and flooded spaces).
• Lifting, slinging and rigging applied to refloating: lift bags, pulls and strong points.

Indicative experience

As a guide: 2–4 years of commercial diving (harbour works, hull inspection, structure maintenance) and on the order of 100+ logged dives/bottom hours in the diver's logbook before joining complex salvage operations. Offshore contractors additionally require documented experience in the specific technique (surface supply, cutting, lifting). Each company and Administration sets its own minimums.

Observations

Typical route: Professional Diver (small/medium depth) → specialisation (welding, inspection, great depth/saturation) → lead diver → Diving Supervisor (IMCA Air / Bell Diving Supervisor) → diving superintendent or Salvage Master. Spanish RD 550/2020 sets exposure limits by technique and breathing mix (as a guide: scuba air to 40 m and surface-supplied air to 50 m; beyond that, mixed gas or saturation — verify current tables and exceptions) and the minimum dive-team composition. Diving safety overrides operational urgency: supervisor, dive plan, standby diver and a hyperbaric chamber available according to depth. An up-to-date diver's logbook and a valid medical are working conditions, not paperwork.

Typical watches

• Dive windows and jobs by task or tide

Key responsibilities

• Inspect underwater damage to hull, propellers, seacocks and submerged structures.
• Carry out welding, cutting, plugging or recovery of elements under water.
• Support refloating maneuvers by placing patches and rigging.
• Maintain diving safety discipline, communications and bottom times.
• Carry out search and recovery of objects and wreckage using search patterns, slinging and lift bags.
• Document each intervention with underwater video/photography and a dive report for the supervisor and the salvage master.

Operational scope

• Underwater hull (wetted surface), propellers, rudders and sea chests
• Flooded spaces and submerged or partially sunken structures
• Ports, anchorages and salvage and rescue scenarios