Prospective divers must possess certification from a recognized agency, have completed a dive medical within the last 12 months and may be required to demonstrate their diving skills in a checkout dive.
    

The Laboratory's diving facilities are first class. Compressed air, nitrox and tri-mix (helium, nitrogen, oxygen) are available to qualified users, and there is an ample supply of scuba tanks. A double-lock recompression chamber backs up the diving safety programme.
    

Discovery Bay has a wide range of dive sites, whether you are a novice seeing the coral reefs for the first time, or are an experienced coral reef biologist. Most back reef sites are shallow and accessible to snorkelers. On both the West and East forereefs, we maintain permanent moorings in about 17m of water, providing safe access to the deep reefs. Diving groups may also go beyond the confines of the Bay, for example, to Rio Bueno where divers can investigate coral wall features or to Pear Tree Bottom where coral canyons support a wide variety of organisms.
    

There are several boats, of varying sizes and capacity, available for use by visitors and researchers. Diving and boating rates depend on the destination and the number of persons making the trip.