Underwater recovery and salvage divers, from lost keys to sunken boats
Underwater recovery and salvage covers everything from finding a phone, ring or set of keys dropped off a dock to raising a sunken boat. Typical jobs are searching for a lost item; recovering an outboard, anchor, mooring block or dropped tools; refloating a boat that sank at its slip or mooring; and removing a wreck.
For small items the diver searches the area where the item went in using a planned search pattern, often with an underwater metal detector. For boats, the team patches openings, rigs lift bags or pumps, or brings in a crane, and deals with fuel and oil before and after the lift. A good result is the item or boat back on the surface without more damage and, for a boat, no fuel left in the water.
If something falls in, mark the spot straight away (a GPS pin, a photo, a count of dock boards) and do not dive for it yourself unless you are trained and equipped: cold water, silt and boat traffic can make even shallow recoveries risky. If a boat has sunk, tell your insurer as early as you can.
DiverHire is a new marketplace in public beta. Post a recovery or salvage job free with the location, water depth and what was lost, and divers can bid. Response times are not guaranteed, and payment is arranged directly with the diver you pick.
Who needs this
- Boat and dock owners: keys, phones, sunglasses, outboards, anchors and tools dropped overboard.
- Cottage and waterfront homeowners: lost jewellery, a sunken swim platform or mooring block.
- Owners of sunk or swamped boats: refloating and removal, often with an insurer involved.
- Marinas and harbour authorities: sunken boats in slips, derelict wrecks and lost mooring gear.
- Contractors: dropped equipment and materials recovered from a work site.
- Insurers and adjusters: recovery and evidence for claims.
Raising a boat is heavier work for a dive team than a small-item search, but local rules may treat either as commercial diving. In Ontario, when you hire a diver for a job that includes retrieving property, you have many of the same responsibilities as constructors and employers engaged in a diving operation (Ontario Ministry of Labour). Read lost a ring, phone or keys in a lake for what to do in the first hour.
Typical pricing
Small-item searches are usually charged by the hour per diver, sometimes with a trip charge or a finder's fee. Boat recovery is quoted per job from the boat's size, water depth and condition, or per foot of boat, plus pumps, crane time and spill clean-up.
- Jacksonville, Florida: search and recovery USD 165 per diver-hour plus a USD 50 trip charge and an agreed percentage of the item's value; salvage in 15 ft of water or less USD 190 per foot of boat (DS Diving, 2026).
- Riverside, California (inland lakes): daytime boat recovery USD 2,600 to 25 ft deep and USD 4,900 to 60 ft; fuel and oil spill clean-up USD 2,900; crane USD 2,000–3,300 plus USD 300/h for the operator (Riverside Scuba, page dated 2022).
- US removal company (several states): 15–25 ft boats from USD 3,000–6,000, 25–30 ft from USD 5,000–8,000, 30 ft and up from about USD 8,000 (BoatRemover, 2026).
Quotes vary with depth, visibility, access, travel and team size, and with how long the boat or item has been down.
Guides
- Lost ring, phone or keys in a lake: what to do in the first hour
- How to Hire a Diver: A Checklist for Boat Owners and Marinas
- Commercial diving in Toronto and the Great Lakes: a local guide
- Planning, Pricing & Recording Underwater Work: A Guide for Clients and Divers
Required / preferred certifications
- PADI Search and Recovery course (small items, recreational)
- ADCI Entry-level tender/diver
- ADCI Air diver
- DCBC Unrestricted Surface Supplied Diver
- HSE Surface Supplied Diving (Great Britain)
Other diving services
- Underwater inspection
- Underwater welding
- Underwater photography
- Boat & hull cleaning
- Marine research support
- Marine surveying
- Underwater cleanup
Commercial diving by city
- Aberdeen, UK
- Anchorage, USA
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Baltimore, USA
- Boston, USA
- Brisbane, Australia
- Charleston, USA
- Chicago, USA
- Cleveland, USA
- Corpus Christi, USA
- Detroit, USA
- Dubai, UAE
- Duluth, USA
- Fort Lauderdale, USA
- Galveston, USA
- Halifax, Canada
- Hamburg, Germany
- Honolulu, USA
- Houston, USA
- Jacksonville, USA
- Jersey City, USA
- Key West, USA
- London, UK
- Long Beach, USA
- Melbourne, Australia
- Miami, USA
- Milwaukee, USA
- Mississauga, Canada
- Mobile, USA
- Montreal, Canada
- New Orleans, USA
- New York, USA
- Norfolk, USA
- Oakland, USA
- Perth, Australia
- Philadelphia, USA
- Portland, USA
- Portland, USA
- Rotterdam, Netherlands
- San Diego, USA
- San Francisco, USA
- Savannah, USA
- Seattle, USA
- Singapore, Singapore
- St. John's, Canada
- Sydney, Australia
- Tampa, USA
- Toronto, Canada
- Vancouver, Canada
- Victoria, Canada
Need a salvage operations diver?
Post a job for free and compare bids from divers who serve your area.