How is buoyancy used by scuba divers?

Answer 1

Scuba divers control their buoyancy to keep off the sea floor or from floating up to the surface, to avoid obstacles both above and below them, and to have a more relaxing dive with minimal physical effort. As a diver changes depth, they need to either add or release air from their buoyancy compensator (BC or BCD) to maintain neutral buoyancy. A diver in control of their buoyancy can move through the water with minimal fin input and breath control making the dive a lot more enjoyable (not to mention longer due to not using a lot of air inefficiently to maintain buoyancy control).

Buoyancy is not really used by scuba divers, but it does act against them. Since the human body and the gear during scuba diving is held up by the water, especially at farther down depths of the ocean, where the water is more dense because of the weight of the water and the air holding it down. Because of the buoyancy, the divers have to wear weights to offset this buoyancy. Since in scuba diving you use wetsuits, and since these suits have nitrogen bubbles to assist insulation, this makes you float even more. And since your cells contain lipids and other materiels that are lighter than the water, this makes you float even more. This means that scuba divers must use weights to offset the buoyancy.

Answer 2

Neutral.