Scientific diving is the occupational form of diving to carry out research and data recording underwater by trained teams, sitting separate to both sport and commercial/ construction diving. As an occupation it is generally carried out by scientists trained as divers but can included diving specialists with a scientific background.
Finland has historically always had a strong core of scientific diving research and technique development, both in marine biology and maritime archeology fields. Sadly in the last 15 year this has dropped off with the reduction funding for marine research and option for training being more limited. To overcome this a new project was established to revitalise the training of scientific divers in Finland and create a new base for this. This was realised by the Finnish Scientific Diving Academy (FSDA) , based at the University of Helsinki Tvärminne Zoological Station.
The initial goal of the FSDA is to train European recognised scientific divers generating a new generation of marine scientists with long-term plans to establish as a leading cold water based scientific diving training facility.
The Finnish Scientific Diving Academy is funded by the Antero and Merja Parma Foundation and Weisell Foundation for an initial three year establishment process.
Edd Stockdale, Coordinator
Edd began his diving career at the early age of 12 in the North Sea off of Scotland and has been diving ever since. He completed a degree in marine zoology and worked for many years as a researcher with various institutions publishing in the field of physiology and biophysics, for which he won the 2008 French Academy of Science Jouvance Medal in Marine Biology.
He decided in around 2008 to head into full time diving and moved to SE Asia where he has been working in both the recreational diving industry, educational institutions and research stations in many capacities including the role of Expediton Dive Safety Officer for the University of Oxford, University of Essex and University of Malta on various projects.
In the capacity of Coordinator for the Finnish Scientific Diving Academy Edd runs all the daily operations, developing scientific diving education at all levels and working on new approaches to data collection in various environments.
When not working in scientific areas Edd Stockdale is an instructor for CCR, mine and decompression diving programs and active explorer with a passion for flooded mines in the Nordic region and Shipwrecks, especially in the Baltic Sea. He is a member of The Explorers Club, Badewanne Team and Team Reel Diving. In 2016 he was nominated for the Eurotek Discovery Award for his work in wreck exploration.