Commercial diver training company in Argyll to scope expansion

3rd June 2025

A commercial diver training company in Argyll is exploring the potential to expand the business to include closed bell diver training.

Dunoon based Professional Diving Academy (PDA) has secured £5,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to help cover associated market assessment consultancy costs.

PDA is a sister company of Shearwater Marine Services, in Dunoon. It provides HSE certified training and certification for commercial air divers and is the only diving training centre in Scotland to do so.

Commercial diving has supported the global oil and gas industries for many decades and more recently this has expanded into offshore renewables, a growing industry in Scotland.

There are two main categories of commercial diving: surface-supplied diving using air or and saturation diving. Air is commonly used for dives up to approximately 50 metres. Beyond this depth, nitrogen narcosis and oxygen toxicity become significant risks.

For deeper or prolonged underwater work, saturation diving is employed. In this method, divers live under pressure in a hyperbaric chamber and are transported to the work site in a closed diving bell, breathing a helium-oxygen mixture (heliox). This allows them to remain at depth for extended periods—sometimes up to 28 days—with only one decompression at the end of the rotation.

There is currently no facility in the northern hemisphere for training closed bell diving. PDA is conducting a viability assessment with a view to potentially filling this gap in the market by developing a training facility for closed bell saturation divers to HSE standard.

Morag Goodfellow, HIE area manager for Argyll and the Islands, said, "The Professional Diving Academy is a valuable local employer in Dunoon and we have worked with the company for some time now. This project is about scoping out the potential viability of a major expansion of the business that could strengthen the company's resilience, generate more economic activity in Dunoon and create more skilled jobs. It could also consolidate the PDA's position in the offshore wind sector supply chain.

"I’m very pleased we’ve been able to provide support and look forward to hearing the findings of the market assessment."

Alastair Baird, director of Professional Diving Academy and Shearwater Marine Services said:

"We are very grateful to Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) for their support as we explore the demand for a closed bell diver training centre here in the UK. It is important to us that we grow the social and economic benefit that we bring to Dunoon and we are pleased that HIE also share this goal.

“We look forward to continuing to work with HIE on this and on other projects that we are progressing at this time."