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���ҵ��� scientific diving program marks 25 years

When Brenda Konar launched the first scientific diving course at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2000, there was some speculation that it could be a short-lived experiment.

After all, how much demand could there really be for a class that combines cold-water diving and research skills?

That gamble has paid off nicely: The scientific diving program hit a milestone this year with its 25th year of instruction. Including this year’s graduates, more than 500 students have been trained as scientific divers through the program.

“When you say, ‘Build it and people will come,’ I don’t always believe that,” said Konar, a professor of marine biology at ���ҵ���’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. “But in this case, it worked.”

Konar’s first experience with cold-water diving came when she was studying at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A diver on a research project in Canada’s Resolute Bay got sick, and Konar became a last-minute replacement. That trip was followed with research in Antarctica and eventually Alaska.

Her initial motivation for teaching the ���ҵ��� class was simple. Konar’s research at the time focused on sea otter ecology in the Aleutian Islands, and there was a shortage of trained scientific divers at ���ҵ��� who could conduct that field research.

“I guess it was a selfish reason at first,” Konar said. “I needed divers.”

Since then, the class has become a spring semester tradition at ���ҵ���. Students spend a few months in Fairbanks classrooms and the Patty Center swimming pool. The final is held during spring break at the Kasitsna Bay Laboratory, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration field station near Seldovia operated in partnership with ���ҵ���. 

“Snow, ice, sleet, wind — we don’t care,” Konar said. “It’s fun that way.”

Not everyone in the class is a scientist. Firefighters, international students and “people who want to have an exciting spring break” routinely take the course, Konar said.