ry suits, which surround them with air and insulate them from chemical, environmental, and thermal hazards (Burke & OÆRear, 1). Locating devices can be sonar-type, good for finding the target in deep water and detecting hazards; sonar is useful in situations involving deep water, swift currents, and unknown boundaries and has been used to locate bodies and parts of airplanes but is not as useful at identifying unknown target (Burke & OÆRear, 1).
In deeper or more hazardous waters, it often becomes safer to use equipment that permits investigation without entering the deeps, where hazards such as sharks threaten diversÆ safety. One type of equipment now standard in such investigations is the submersible remotely-operated vehicle, or ROV (Schcrope). The ROV is tethered to a control station and monitored by a pontoon boat floating above as it is guided to the crime scene; its onboard video camera allows the operator to see the details of the crime scene from the boat (Schcrope). Although divers are required for retrieving evidence and taking measurements, the ROV saves a lot of time by enabling investigators to narrow down the search more rapidly (Schcrope).
Another piece of equipment useful in an underwater investigation is an underwater metal detector. This tool enables divers to find metal objects such as guns that have become obscured by sand or silt at the bottom of a body of water and locates objects much more quickly than a physical probe of the bottom by hand (ôUnderwater Metal Detectorsö).
The first procedure in investigating an underwater crime scene is to search for evidence. In an underwater case, it is often standard to ôinvestigateö the scene using robots before the divers enter the water (ôFSU Panama City Showcases New Underwater Crime Scene Techniques,ö 3). If the body and/or other evidence is not immediately visible, or if the location of the crime cannot be pinpointed precisely enough, it wil...