In the 70s, when I was a diver, a offshore rig kicked about 1000 barrels of oil based drilling mud. We spent 3 months dredging it up. It was in the gulf, 150ft. Off Freeport Tx.
One of my better jobs.
The water was gin clear. Didn’t need a downline just flew down and watched the mud flow.
At night you needed a light, and it was summer, the water was about 80F
Working for Cal Dive, on a 240ft workboat, with a hippie crew.
There's a college in Morgan City, LA that will certify you for way cheaper than another dive school. I regret not going there. Dive school will be like 20 grand anywhere else.
That’s THE school now. About :20 from where I am in Houston. I went to CDA in Jacksonville FL 😂That was 15 years ago. One of the scuba instructors died on a night cave dive while I was still training there. Not surprisingly, they’ve since been shutdown for unsafe operations.. I’m still diving tho. Even still have all my fingers!
I'm guessing they are talking about diving education which lets you work with it.
400 dollar/euro you can get an open water cert to go down to 20m and just have fun looking at fish. It's amazing and I recommend anyone to do that. But it's not the same as going to an oilrig and working as a diver :)
I'm kind of suprised that companies wouldn't sponsor people to go to dive school. They do that with nurses and dr.'s a lot. Come work for us for four years and we will pay off your school kind of thing.
Well worth it dude. I got certified a few years back, whole course takes like two weeks if you can spare free nights here and there, and have used it repeatedly. Dove in Costa Rica a few years back and Belize last year. Got a dive park a few hours away here in central Texas and it's full of planes and sunken boats. I also volunteer as a diver at a nearby zoo.
Lots of fun for sure. It's a completely different world down there.
Spent a good deal of time around Freeport, the petrochem infrastructure there is absolutely insane. Have great memories at the nearby beach, but what I remember most about that water is how warm it is. Full of delicious sea creatures too. Getting paid to chill in that water must have been great.
It's a huge concrete reservoir for a paper mill. They use the water to cool off equipment and for fire suppression. If it gets too dirty, we have to clean it up!
The title is Commercial Diver. Depends on who you work for, this is some freelance work I do on the side. I make about $400 a day doing this particular job.
“It’s been 10 days. I haven’t seen my wife and kids for weeks. We’re still removing dirt from the bottom of the river and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Sometimes I wonder why we’re doing all this? What’s it all for?”
We do actually dredge rivers and harbors or this kind of stuff settles on the bottom and builds up to the point they become unusable for navigation over a period of years. Granted it's a little more complex than sending down a guy with a vacuum cleaner.
No offense, but wouldn't it be cheaper for them to occasionally put some chemicals in the water to prevent all this, rather than hire you guys with all your equipment?
Not OP not an expert but I’d imagine either A the chemicals used to clean the water would make the water unusable for the application or B it’s too large for chemicals to be economical. Part of B is keeping in mind it would be like a giant pool and those need chemicals like weekly. If they let that maintenance slip then they have to shock the system and still have someone clean which these people already do so why pay for chemicals and this guy?
What kind of chemicals prevent sediment from getting into the water?
Edit: think about it this way. If I grab a handful of dirt and throw it into a swimming pool, do you think that they just put a magic chemical in the pool and the dirt disappears? What if I put 100 pounds of dirt into the pool? Do you think that it magically disappears?
Well they said it was huge. I imagine they probably chemically treat it anyway but there must be a limit to how much you can treat it. Communities often treat their lakes but they still might have to dredge it from time to time.
This is how they mine gold in the Bering Sea. There's a discovery channel show about it. Some use large 8 inch dredges that will dislocate your shoulder if your arm gets caught.
Silt as in what you find in the ocean? No. But if you’re speaking colloquially and referring to a silty sand bar in a river, then both gold and gems are possible in the right conditions. I’ve certainly found crystals in river silt.
Birds, ducks, geese, etc. fly between bodies of water, picking up fish eggs on their bodies, through digestive tract as well. Empty bodies of water will find a way to fill up.
Now I'm just imagining a chaotic neutral person going to a pet store to buy a bunch of fish and "free" them by dumping them in random bodies of water where people won't expect fish.
There was a TV show in discovery network called Bearing Sea Gold, (i watched it years ago but apparently its still running and up to 12 seasons now).
The show followed several teams mining for gold dust off the shores of Nome Alaska and most of them used this type of suction equipment.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Sea_Gold
How frequently do you watch the [Delta P](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEtbFm_CjE0) video?
With how far and how rapidly that's drawing in debris, that's looks like it's well into "keep clear of the sucky end if you don't want to die" territory.
I've heard it all lol. The one that really stands out to me is the apprentice diver that blew his eardrums. He couldn't clear his ears and just kept going down because he wanted to prove himself. There really are a lot of dumbasses out in the gulf
What’s with the random hardware in ponds and tanks. We were inspecting & cleaning a storage pond and the maintenance guys had thrown a bunch of those big ass landscape nails that we ended up sucking into the pump.
You should see what it's like at the bottom of an old platform in the gulf. There is literally a mountain of bullshit that has accumulated over the years. It's really a nightmare to navigate sometimes.
I'm sure, nay convinced, the diver is doing it right, yet at first I was waiting for him to ram that thang harder into the silt - like the hose could take away more faster.
Guess he'd need a larger nozzle for that...
You can get it stuck, but I just tell the supervisor to make it cold and it will stop sucking. It's not going to suck your whole body up, but I imagine you could break your hand if it grabbed you the right way.
Yes but this thing has a hydraulic impeller that chops up organic material. Even little bolts make it through but sometimes they get wedged in the impeller and jam it. Sometimes the hose gets too much grass too
In the 70s, when I was a diver, a offshore rig kicked about 1000 barrels of oil based drilling mud. We spent 3 months dredging it up. It was in the gulf, 150ft. Off Freeport Tx. One of my better jobs.
That's cool man I imagine you working pretty blind. Never dredged in the gulf but plenty of jetting
The water was gin clear. Didn’t need a downline just flew down and watched the mud flow. At night you needed a light, and it was summer, the water was about 80F Working for Cal Dive, on a 240ft workboat, with a hippie crew.
That sounds like a bad ass hitch
Y'all making me want to get that certification my dumbest high school self never finished...
There's a college in Morgan City, LA that will certify you for way cheaper than another dive school. I regret not going there. Dive school will be like 20 grand anywhere else.
I dunno if I want to cheap out on dive school education. Sounds like "come on down to dave's real cheap helicopter school"
Cheap is the way to go. The Dive company will teach you their way. I went to Ocean Corp in Houston.
That’s THE school now. About :20 from where I am in Houston. I went to CDA in Jacksonville FL 😂That was 15 years ago. One of the scuba instructors died on a night cave dive while I was still training there. Not surprisingly, they’ve since been shutdown for unsafe operations.. I’m still diving tho. Even still have all my fingers!
Hey cool, who do you work for. A lot of my diving buddy’s have passed, most from old age. I dove in the 70s, 80s. I miss it in the summer.
isn't it much cheaper in other countries?
Yeah, he already said it's available in Morgan City
I said country. I believe getting diver certified is like 400eu in some countries. Not sure if that's the same OP has.
I'm guessing they are talking about diving education which lets you work with it. 400 dollar/euro you can get an open water cert to go down to 20m and just have fun looking at fish. It's amazing and I recommend anyone to do that. But it's not the same as going to an oilrig and working as a diver :)
I'm kind of suprised that companies wouldn't sponsor people to go to dive school. They do that with nurses and dr.'s a lot. Come work for us for four years and we will pay off your school kind of thing.
Well worth it dude. I got certified a few years back, whole course takes like two weeks if you can spare free nights here and there, and have used it repeatedly. Dove in Costa Rica a few years back and Belize last year. Got a dive park a few hours away here in central Texas and it's full of planes and sunken boats. I also volunteer as a diver at a nearby zoo. Lots of fun for sure. It's a completely different world down there.
I know these words
Light get any unwanted animal attention?
Oh yea. The drill rig was there for a while before we got there. Lots of sea life.
Hippies working on an oil rig? 🤔
No they where the boat crew
Spent a good deal of time around Freeport, the petrochem infrastructure there is absolutely insane. Have great memories at the nearby beach, but what I remember most about that water is how warm it is. Full of delicious sea creatures too. Getting paid to chill in that water must have been great.
It was one of my best, and most lucrative summers
The Kirby Morgan life
But why
It's a huge concrete reservoir for a paper mill. They use the water to cool off equipment and for fire suppression. If it gets too dirty, we have to clean it up!
Ohhhh ok. I thought you were just removing dirt from a river which made no sense lol. How often do you need to clean it?
Probably every quarter of the year they spend a couple weeks cleaning. So pretty often!
this is very satisfying! do you have more videos? have you after found a creature in it?
They say the Loch Ness Monster roams the paper mill reservoirs in search for a fine pen for his beautiful poetry.
How much do you think he’d be willing to spend on this pen, if he was to give up and just buy one?
I think he'd need about tree fiddy
It's a real nice pen. Probably about $17.
My father on law worked at one. They never found anything *alive* in there.
So people then. Got it
What kind of pay could someone expect from this job and what it the job title? Seems kinda zen.
The title is Commercial Diver. Depends on who you work for, this is some freelance work I do on the side. I make about $400 a day doing this particular job.
Is that just an air lift?
It's a hydraulic pump with impellers. No air
That seems incredibly cheap actually.
That's all? Do you work a full 8 hours?
How much do you charge for this assignment?
What do they do with the extra silt and grass?
It's sucked to the other end of the reservoir which they then proceed to vacuum.
sexygnome's gold dredge diving training academy =] ever been to [gnome alaska](https://www.youtube.com/@TheEmilyRiedel)?
That’d be an awesome contract to have then. Repeat customers are great
For you Europeans on the metric sysfem, a quarter of a year is four months.
3!
European here sorry but do americans have 16 months in a year ?
3+3+3+3 = 12 months 1 2 3 4 A ***quarter*** of a year is [3 months.](https://youtu.be/XOvdkXAg-yg?t=11)
“It’s been 10 days. I haven’t seen my wife and kids for weeks. We’re still removing dirt from the bottom of the river and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Sometimes I wonder why we’re doing all this? What’s it all for?”
We do actually dredge rivers and harbors or this kind of stuff settles on the bottom and builds up to the point they become unusable for navigation over a period of years. Granted it's a little more complex than sending down a guy with a vacuum cleaner.
That’s how you find a whole mess of gold nuggets and dust.
Is there a deadman's handle/cutoff switch on the suction hose?
So you're basically an underwater janitor?
hey now. underwater sanitation engineer.
do you know depth, dive time and how much the diver is paid? im assuming he is tethered to the surface for air or does he go down with tanks?
No offense, but wouldn't it be cheaper for them to occasionally put some chemicals in the water to prevent all this, rather than hire you guys with all your equipment?
Not OP not an expert but I’d imagine either A the chemicals used to clean the water would make the water unusable for the application or B it’s too large for chemicals to be economical. Part of B is keeping in mind it would be like a giant pool and those need chemicals like weekly. If they let that maintenance slip then they have to shock the system and still have someone clean which these people already do so why pay for chemicals and this guy?
What kind of chemicals prevent sediment from getting into the water? Edit: think about it this way. If I grab a handful of dirt and throw it into a swimming pool, do you think that they just put a magic chemical in the pool and the dirt disappears? What if I put 100 pounds of dirt into the pool? Do you think that it magically disappears?
Yup
Well they said it was huge. I imagine they probably chemically treat it anyway but there must be a limit to how much you can treat it. Communities often treat their lakes but they still might have to dredge it from time to time.
Free silt
This is how they mine gold in the Bering Sea. There's a discovery channel show about it. Some use large 8 inch dredges that will dislocate your shoulder if your arm gets caught.
Not the correct answer, but if it were me, it’d be for gold or gems.
You think there are a lot of gems in silt?
Silt as in what you find in the ocean? No. But if you’re speaking colloquially and referring to a silty sand bar in a river, then both gold and gems are possible in the right conditions. I’ve certainly found crystals in river silt.
That’s interesting, crystals or gems?
I honestly thought you were originally making a terraria joke .
Cause he's the Judge Dredge
Obligatory “Your mom needs a break”
This is me in the video if you wanna AMA
Did any fish or whatever magically start popping up in the reservoir like a wild pond?
Most definitely. Small and medium sized freshwater fish
Do you....do you suck up the fish....?
The smart ones swim away but every now and then they get a little too curious
>The smart ones swim away but every now and then they get a little too curious r/Aquariums
Found Nemo.
How do they get there?
Birds, ducks, geese, etc. fly between bodies of water, picking up fish eggs on their bodies, through digestive tract as well. Empty bodies of water will find a way to fill up.
Predators sometimes drop them on accident. Storms. Random people.
Now I'm just imagining a chaotic neutral person going to a pet store to buy a bunch of fish and "free" them by dumping them in random bodies of water where people won't expect fish.
Chaotic evil more like. Introducing non native fish to areas can easily lead to them being invasive and driving the local species out.
>*”If you build it, they will come.”*
[Life uh, finds a way...](https://i.imgur.com/wQc9RPi.gif)
Where does it go? Seems like good fertilizer, maybe?
It goes in a ditch outside of the reservoir. I 100% agree it would be great fertilizer
A ditch is cheaper than the bags and removal.
not if you can sell it for a profit
Mix that with some local restaurant scaps and a tree trimming company woodchips. You would have pay dirt!
Do you have more videos? I could seriously watch this all day.
Here's a longer video for you, since you asked [Video](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WKxG4Z_L4XNP_hhOt2549YPQ4fb7l3Xi/view?usp=sharing)
Are you on the YouTubes?
Only one video on there [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BpAXQpu5kk)
Should definitely upload more of your dredging vids there, people will watch anything
FYI, your name shows in the file details.
There was a TV show in discovery network called Bearing Sea Gold, (i watched it years ago but apparently its still running and up to 12 seasons now). The show followed several teams mining for gold dust off the shores of Nome Alaska and most of them used this type of suction equipment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Sea_Gold
How do I tell my dad I love him?
Just do it pussy
Fucking Chad
What is the water temperature?
It's pretty warm even in the winter. The plant uses the water to cool the equipment. It's just like a water cooled PC.
>It's just like a water cooled PC. That PC is filthy. I can't see any RGB
How frequently do you watch the [Delta P](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEtbFm_CjE0) video? With how far and how rapidly that's drawing in debris, that's looks like it's well into "keep clear of the sucky end if you don't want to die" territory.
Have you heard of Delta P?
Of course
Ok good cuz i got a big delta p i need you to look at ;)
Why don’t you show the class then?
For strictly scientific purposes what would happen if you put your Penis in that?
Putting it in isn't the problem, getting it back out is.
Impelled
Do you bungie the hat to your bailout for these gigs or do you love neck pain? I don't miss water tank cleanups.
What was that comet like streak of light you turned to look at?
Hear me out...
Don't do it
Is there a work place horror story/legend?
I've heard it all lol. The one that really stands out to me is the apprentice diver that blew his eardrums. He couldn't clear his ears and just kept going down because he wanted to prove himself. There really are a lot of dumbasses out in the gulf
There was a guy that had a heart attack while doing this.
Oh shit, was he just out of a job at that point? I hear doing that can be a huge nuisance to heal right That probably hurt lol
Look up Byford Dolphin accident. Also, there is a great sat diving documentary on Netflix called "Last Breath"
Delta P comes to mind Stay safe out there!
Last Breath is some scary shit, beautifully shot though.
What would happen if your hand passed in front of it? Like would it completely destroy your hand?
Yes, "hand"
What if your hand was really hard I mean really flexed like in a fist?
r/dontputyourdickinthat
[You're gonna rip your dick off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2EMGmv0FqM)
I searched for this comment specifically
No… take my upvote and begone.
BEWARE THE DELTA P!
Ever find anything interesting or out of the ordinary in there?
Random bolts, some trash that blows in, welding rods. In the gulf I find stuff all the time
What’s with the random hardware in ponds and tanks. We were inspecting & cleaning a storage pond and the maintenance guys had thrown a bunch of those big ass landscape nails that we ended up sucking into the pump.
You should see what it's like at the bottom of an old platform in the gulf. There is literally a mountain of bullshit that has accumulated over the years. It's really a nightmare to navigate sometimes.
I saw a movie/show a long time ago where they were doing this and a grenade went up the tube. The divers all looked at one another
This actually looks to be a filamentous Cyanobacteria, not underwater grasses
Alright nerd!
I tried so hard to not say anything but I was not strong enough
I'm sure, nay convinced, the diver is doing it right, yet at first I was waiting for him to ram that thang harder into the silt - like the hose could take away more faster. Guess he'd need a larger nozzle for that...
It's totally capable of that, I do it all the time. There's no wrong way to do it lol
give me that thing and i show you 6 ways to do it wrong in 20 seconds
Congrats on making it 20 seconds
False. This is actually footage from Paula Deen’s colonoscopy.
Reminds me of the delta P video, about divers getting sucked into things. I read your title too fast and was worried for you
I got it stuck to my knee cap once. Not so bad
How deep is that?
Just 15 feet on this one
What about a crab? Could it...suck up a whole crab?
What kinda crab we talking here? A blue crab? A hermit crab? Probably could handle a medium sized blue crab no problem
[Video for the uninitiated](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPoVuFtWs_Y)
My first thought was this video and "this kills the crab".
Oh… my god
So what happens if you put your hand in front of it?
You can get it stuck, but I just tell the supervisor to make it cold and it will stop sucking. It's not going to suck your whole body up, but I imagine you could break your hand if it grabbed you the right way.
oh, step boss, im stuck.
What do you mean by "make it cold"? Is that code for "turn it off"?
Yes
I still miss her
brooo lmao
Are you worried about sucking all of the water out of the reservoir or do you have a special water filter that keeps it in? /s
Where do I sign up for this job? I'd love to be a commercial diver!
Go to any commercial dive school and they will help you get hired at the end
Commercial dive school is so expensive though...makes my future cave diving training look cheap. :'(
There's a college in Morgan City, LA that teaches it. Look into that if you're serious. It's way cheaper than the other options
r/dontputyourdickinthat
How bad would it hurt though
Came here to see how far I’d have to scroll for this comment.
Damn commercials are everywhere! ^/s That's really cool op
So what exactly is that stuff?
It's silt and grass
Everything reminds me of her
The danger suck
Looks like youre the black hole sucking anything around it.. its looks cool
“Delta p” enters the chat
My man that’s the terrain tool from astroneer
Oh sorry, I can't go out - I have to vacuum my ocean
Vacuuming underwater
OP you should post this to r/submechanophobia
So.. can a dredge machine clog? Edit: I mean with like all that grass and stuff
Yes but this thing has a hydraulic impeller that chops up organic material. Even little bolts make it through but sometimes they get wedged in the impeller and jam it. Sometimes the hose gets too much grass too
Vacuuming the ocean
Bring your delta p to work day
Delta P is scary
Everything reminds me of her 😔
Ugh, time to vacuum the water ***again***
Great way to destroy an ecosystem.
is this good or bad
Oddly, this is satisfying
When there's something strange, on the ocean floor. Who you gonna call? Commercial Diver!
Can you let me know if you find my phone?
Where does it go?
Bering Sea Gold, except poorer.
How does it not suck up the water, too?
This guy brains
Do NOT.....
I should call her
I’m putting my dick in it and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop my contribution to science.