Commercial Diving in Sri Lanka Has Potential

17th July 2011, www.sundayobserver.lk

There is huge potential for commercial divers and I would like to invite the educated young to become divers, said Managing Director DeepSea Commercial Ltd Buddhi Wickramanayake.

He said that most youngsters don’t think there is potential in diving but there is huge potential and the young and educated should take to it as a profession.

He said that the peaceful atmosphere in the country will make many ships call at Colombo and therefore we should be ready to provide services needed by them in a timely and efficient manner.

If we don’t provide a good service to ships they will go to another port.

DeepSea Commercial is the only commercial diving operator in the country to reach depths of 350 feet. High altitude dives are conducted at locations upto 8,000 feet from sea level. “We are the only mixed gas decompression dive team in the country”, he said.

The team at DeepSea Commercial is certified by the Association of Diving Contractors International (ADCI) and Technical Diving International, USA.The company is the pioneer in offering side scan sonar services to monitor the seabed, subsea infrastructure and subsea engineering structures.

Wickramanayake said that they are the sole service provider for SEA-ME-WE-4 (Southeast Asia-MiddleEast-West Europe-4) optical fibre cable system and a preferred service provider for DSCN (Dhiraagu Submarine Cable Network) Optical fibre cable systems in Sri Lanka and in the Maldives. SEA-ME-WE4 is a 20,000 km long network running from France to Singapore carrying Internet, voice and data among 16 nations.

DSCN network runs from Colombo to the Maldives and inter-islands. Wickramanayake has a dive record of 341 Feet (104 metres), done with Trimix and Nitrox gases. The dive was in Thailand, for a cave exploration project. He is a mixed gas commercial diver as well as a Hyperbaric Chamber Operator. Wickramanayake is also a commercial pilot with multi engine and instrument rating.

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