A few divers are able to make in excess of $100,000 a year and al­though the tax man cuts that figure rather drastically, it still means a lot of money. But, jumping into Bass Strait at eight o’clock on a wintry morning is not everyone’s idea of a way to earn their bread.

Spending all day under deep and swelly water has its problems. Fa­tigue is automatic, but the bends is a problem and divers have to be care­ful to decompress carefully in order to get rid of the nitrogen bubbles from their blood which can block off the arteries in the bone, which kills the joint, and virtually eats the joint away.