From report Published by U.S. CDC, Center for Disease Control, in 1999: They estimate 3000 working commercial divers in the United States.

“At the average of five deaths per year this corresponds to a rate of 180 deaths per 100,000 employed divers per year, which is 40 times the national average death rate for all workers. This group, which accounts for most of the commercial dive time underwater, includes divers involved in construction, maintenance, and inspection of vessels and structures such as oil rigs, bridges, and dams. The remaining 67 deaths occurred among workers who were not full-time divers; these include seafood harvest divers, search and rescue divers, scientific divers, dive instructors, and nonmilitary federal agency divers.”

Nothing has been done about this report! At this time OSHA nor the Coast Guard has a means for tracking Death or serious incident among Commercial Divers. All though they regulate the Industry they have NO classification for Commercial Diver.