Unless you live in the Caribbean, and the water temperature is constant, knowing the sea’s temperature in advance of going diving would be great. If that happened, you could select accurately your exposure protection even before leaving home. In an effort to provide divers along Santa Catalina Island with this ability, Catalina Conservancy Divers (CCD) has installed a number of “temperature devices” (known commonly as thermometers) at multiple locations and depths around the Island.

For the past 10 years, the devices have recorded the temperatures in the water. Recently, CCD correlated their temperatures with surface water temperatures measured at the nearest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) buoy. Consequently, a diver can access the current NOAA buoy temperature on-line and estimate the water temperatures at various depths near Catalina. For more details, check out the explanation and the easy math involved at St. Brendan.

For those of us who DON’T live near Catalina…um…we can (a) move; (b) hope local dive organizations install similar devices; or (c) wait for the day that underwater gliders are ubiquitous.

[Thanks, Eric!]