Physiological and behavioral responses to extreme cold-water diving and thermal stress: recommendations for the polar diver.

As access and exploration of polar regions has expanded in the past two decades due to greater interest and technology, more recreational scuba divers are exploring these more remote cold-water locations. Polar, or extreme cold-water, diving is a more physically demanding form of scuba diving, and divers need to better understand the effect of near-freezing water temperatures on human physiology. Changes in both physiological and behavioral functions may occur quickly in these types of environments and present the scuba diver with a potentially more challenging and dangerous environment. Divers with significant experience in more temperate warm-water locations may overestimate their ability to manage extremely cold water and underestimate the effect of near-freezing water temperatures on their body and diving capacity. More scuba training organizations need to better educate and prepare divers for this type of diving and should consider adding more environmentally specific information in their educational programming. With a better understanding of how the body responds to cold-water diving and the methods utilized to manage thermal changes and stress in extreme conditions, dive safety and performance will be improved, and the increased risks associated with diving in extreme environmental conditions may be managed more effectively with the purpose of increasing diver safety.