bottom time

noun

Scuba Diving.

1. the total time, in minutes, from the beginning of a descent to the beginning of an ascent.

Example Sentences

“Simply caging corals and then removing the cages later, that’s two times the amount of work, two times the amount of bottom time,” Karp said.

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Sommers and Corbett fit Gina and me with gear — we’d brought only masks, snorkels and fins, while the other divers arrived with full kits, including air tanks — before our captain runs through the safety briefing: Manage your own gear, bottom time and decompression stops, and descend and ascend hand-over-hand via the anchor line to avoid getting swept away by currents.

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Because of how the human body responds to pressure and processes compressed air at depth, safely advisable bottom time decreases the deeper you go.

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We’re in 90 feet of water and thus have 40 minutes of bottom time.

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But a new study supports another use for a belly full of rocks—as a way to boost bottom time on dives.

Read more on Science Magazine