So, cave-diving is just a recreational sport, like kayaking or sky-diving?
No. While many cave-divers have only recreation in mind, the NSS-CDS and its members supports both educational and scientific endeavors into the phreatic (underwater) cave zone. Many members are physical scientists who are interested in the geology, hydrology and biology of underwater caves. Many areas of the country rely on ground-water for drinking supplies for millions of people. Cave-divers have been instrumental in many cases in pro-actively preventing pollution-creating businesses from being set up in environmentally sensitive areas. Yet other cave-divers have found and recovered unique biological specimens from caves which contribute not only to our general knowledge of our world, but to specific biochemical knowledge that has resulted in useful medical and consumer products. Allowing properly trained and motivated cave-divers into a cave can result in surveys and maps showing the extent of the cave, the flow of the water, water samples for analysis, reports and samples of uniqu
