During work in the North Sea, saturation divers work shifts of up to 6 hours subsea, and then rest onboard the Diving Support Vessel (DSV) under pressure. The transition from the seabed to the ship is done under pressure inside a dive bell.
The current world depth record is 701 m - though due to the very low oxygen concentration at that depth - not much work was done. Oxygen becomes toxic at high concentration and pressure, and this is one of the issues limiting the depth attainable by saturation diving. In fact, the diver setting the record used half an hour just to write down his current depth on a tablet.
Current legislation allows for dives down to 250 m in the Norwegian sector, and even greater in UK waters.
Even though ROV's have taken over much of the work offshore, current uses for diving in the North Sea include:
Companies that utilize divers in the North Sea include:
* HS and DSND has now merged into "
Subsea 7".