Underwater lighting

Increased interest in working on the ocean floor has been accompanied by the need for better underwater illumination. Artificial illumination is required in deep water where ambient light is limited and in shallow water where work must be done at night. In the past, where decreased mobility and small area illumination were acceptable, the hand-held, or swimmer-mounted, lights were adequate. These older methods of illumination are obsolescent with the requirements for increased swimmer mobility and larger areas of illumination. Most commercially available underwater lights do not lend themselves well to large area illumination due to high cost and small angular beam spread.