Surface-supplied Diving - Compressor Diving

Compressor diving is a method of surface-supplied diving used in some tropical sea areas including the Philippines and the Caribbean. The divers swim with an eyes-and-nose diving mask (half mask) and (often home-made) fins and are supplied air by plastic hoses from an industrial low pressure air compressor of the type commonly used to supply jackhammers. There is no reduction valve; the diver holds the hose end in his mouth with no demand valve or mouthpiece. The compressor is on a boat.

If several people are compressor diving from the same boat, several line tenders are needed in the boat to stop the airlines from getting tangled and kinked and so blocked.

Compressor diving is the most common method used to fish for Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) in the Caribbean. However, it is illegal because it contributes to overfishing, is environmentally destructive, and is harmful to the health of the fishers. When fishing with compressors, fishers either use gaffs or harpoons to spear lobsters immediately upon sight, killing or injuring the lobsters before they can be checked for eggs or assessed as legally-sized. Compressors allow fishers to fish in deeper waters for longer periods of time, facilitating reef damage as fishers search for lobsters hidden underneath corals and other living refuges. The misuse of compressors has also resulted in health problems for many fishers, such as respiratory problems, limb paralysis, and death due to decompression illness.

Compressor diving was shown, and so called, used for pa-aling fishing, in episode 1 (Oceans: Into the Blue) of the BBC television series Human Planet. The cameramen used ordinary scuba gear, but one of them had a trial-dive with the crew's compressor-diving gear.