Thursday, October 1, 2026
By Rick Sinnett
On paper, the life of a commercial diver sounds exciting. Every day, you’re at another exotic location, underwater, building infrastructure that will never be seen – except by other divers – or salvaging a wreck. Edmonds-born Wyatt Pehling – sailor, salvager, builder, educator, and owner of the Nemo Marine Group – experienced firsthand the dangers lurking beneath the waves.
A couple of weeks after he graduated from the Divers Institute of Technology in Seattle, that danger came calling when he and classmates accepted a project in the Bahamas.
They agreed to revamp an operation where the owner let the company’s commercial diving lag. The new crew’s mission: to salvage a 35-foot vessel sunken in a canal. They decided on a “buoyant lift” because the area was too small for a crane.
“The plan was to ‘basket’ the vessel, running a sling underneath to cradle it,” Pehling said. “Because the water was shallow, we had to rig the lift bags as low as possible.” Making what he says was “a poor judgment call,” he decided to raise the stern, the back of the boat, by rigging a lift bag to the vessel’s swim step. “I knew swim steps are made for people – a couple of hundred pounds – not for lifting thousands of pounds.”
The younger, greener Pehling did something the wiser, experienced instructor Pehling, 29, would never do. He and his partner dipped underwater to pass the sling beneath the wreck. “This was inexperience. We shouldn’t have rigged to the step, and we shouldn’t have gone underneath a vessel with an unsafe pick point.” Then, with what sounded like “a super loud bang and a pop,” the vessel came down about 3 feet. Both divers, fearing the other was trapped or crushed under the vessel, surfaced immediately.
If it had happened 30 seconds earlier, one of them might have been seriously injured or killed. “I ended up calling a former supervisor for advice. He told me I should have used a power washer to jet a hole under the boat and used a pipe pole to stab the sling through.”
Salvaging isn’t simply a day at sea. “It’s more than just going out and saying, Hey, we found a boat,” Pehling said. “It’s about showing up prepared, solving problems underwater that most people never see, and leaving things better than we found them.”
What started with a summer vacation in the Bahamas, where Pehling’s friend’s father owned a salvage business, would become a lifelong career. He traveled down for a summer vacation at 14 and dug it. He returned four years later as a deckhand and rigger, eventually hiring on as a welder.
He asked his friend’s dad about commercial diving. It’s one of the most nomadic lifestyles you could pursue, he was told, with a niche skill set. He found that attractive. His next step was enrolling in one of the world’s premier dive schools.
The Diving Institute of Technology, Seattle, on the northwestern shore of Lake Union, teaches all aspects of marine salvage and construction, including calculating vessel weight and equipment lifting capacity, performing first aid, and conducting medical checks on divers.
In 2023, Pehling was offered a position as a hydraulic and pneumatic tools instructor, as well as teaching theoretical and practical salvage and construction. He accepted the role and settled in Seattle.
Pehling started his business, which celebrated its second birthday in September, as a side job while working in marine construction. The company he worked for at the time specialized in building docks, marinas, and piers. Pehling said it gave him a diverse skill set, operating heavy equipment, tugboats, cranes, and doing demolition.
“I slowly started building my team, hiring other instructors and graduates from the school to run a small, tight, safe operation.”
If safety is a concern for construction and demolition on land, you can only imagine how important it is 30-plus feet underwater. Special suits, weights, and breathing gear make a construction or salvage diver seem more like a less dangerous version of an astronaut. But equipment failure can still be fatal.
“It is important to me to educate (students) on rules, regulations, and governing bodies,” Pehling said. “I wouldn’t feel right running my business if I weren’t playing by the rules; it isn’t worth someone not making it home at the end of the day.”
Safety and discipline are day-to-day habits he picked up as a commercial diver. His mindset changed when he became a supervisor and hired his brothers. One day, one of his brothers poorly rigged a tool. Pehling said he hesitated for a moment, almost letting it slide. However, he also thought that if he moved the load and it broke and fell on him, he would have to tell his mother that he killed his brother through negligence.
“Once that is ingrained in your mindset, you can’t go back,” Pehling said. “Whether it is family or just a coworker, I am not going to be the reason I have to tell a loved one that someone isn’t coming home.”
Accidents can happen at any depth, from simple mistakes like being in a hurry. Pehling mentioned the infamous bends, which occur when nitrogen builds up in a diver’s blood from ascending too quickly. The diving institute in Seattle has a compression chamber on site. “But you don’t necessarily need to go 100 feet deep to be in danger. Technically, you can get hurt at just 30 feet if you aren’t careful.”
There are countless dangers, but rigging and crane work are among the most significant concerns. He has seen rigging failures where a chain breaks on a crane load, endangering anyone below it. “One minute you are flying a load, the next you hear a snap and the equipment comes down.” That’s why he always has an escape route in the back of his mind.
Pehling said he finds it frustrating when safe companies that follow guidelines and regulations compete with those that don’t. “Sacrificing safety and compliance to make a dollar is not the business I am in.” He explained that there are contractors who cut corners, some by hiring carpenters and sending them to get a basic PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certification over a week.
“Then they send those carpenters underwater to burn, cut, or work with hydraulic tools. It is extraordinarily unsafe. These workers don’t have the certifications for deep diving or first aid, yet they are doing the work to cut costs.” He said that it’s discouraging for graduates who spent seven months in an intensive program and paid between $30,000 and $40,000 for their education, only to see someone “back-door” into the industry.
According to the International Salvage Union (ISU) reporting, annual revenue in the maritime salvage industry varies. Members generated roughly $400 million in gross revenue in 2024, driven primarily by wreck removal and emergency responses.
Forecasts suggest significant growth across both small and large contract operations by 2030. Wreck Removal is estimated to generate over $200 million for ISU members; emergency response, more than $180 million.
It is never easy to start a business, especially one in a specialized field where you are competing with large corporations. Even though there is expensive equipment – air systems and filters, dive suits and helmets, lift equipment, cranes – insurance is the largest overhead for his business. “When you work on or around the water, there are multiple insurance programs involved, like the Jones Act and Longshoremen’s insurance. Commercial diving is high-risk, so the workers’ comp is expensive.”
Scuba divers can reach a depth of 130 feet before adding helium to their air supply to avoid problems like the bends or nitrogen narcosis, also known as “rapture of the deep,” when the build-up of nitrogen combined with sea pressure creates a euphoric, drunken effect. Safety and costs have led some companies to use underwater drones called ROVs (remotely operated vehicles). Using these machines as their eyes, they reduce dive time for construction and salvage crews. However, human hands are still needed to set up the lift gear.
Nemo Marine Group is named after Pehling’s 3-year-old dog, Nemo, himself named after Captain Nemo of the Jules Verne novels “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Mysterious Island.” “For a long time, I struggled with marketing. I finally decided to make merchandise and wanted a comedic twist, so we made a flier with Nemo driving a Harley and me in the sidecar.”
Nemo Marine Group is in the process of being added to the state’s list of verified salvage contractors to bid on derelict vessels. “That is a goal of ours – to be among the heavy hitters who are renowned for that work. Otherwise, it is a lot of word of mouth and being in the right place at the right time.”
Pehling forbids guests on salvage or construction projects due to safety concerns. But a photo opportunity was cleared for a salvage-dive test at the institute in Seattle to demonstrate a typical operation.
On Dec. 17, 2025, 10 students, some looking like they were fresh out of high school, while others, sporting beards and tattoos, looked every part the modern-day seadog born on the briny. It could have been nerves from their Navy-based final test, or they might have taken their work that seriously, but every team member was focused on their task or on what needed to be done next.
The students filled vital roles on salvage barges: salvage master, salvage engineer, and divers. Teachers volunteered as deckhands to assist with manual tasks, such as handling towlines and mooring the barge. A safety team was suited up and ready in case of an emergency.
The divers coordinated with the salvage master over the radio system. A camera mounted on the diver’s helmet allows the salvage master a diver’s point of view to check connections, welds, and equipment before lifting the salvage vessel. While filling one of the airbags, bubbles were observed coming from it. It was replaced.
After the connections and equipment were cleared, the controlled ascent began. The divers swam clear of the area before the vessel breached the surface, then attached towing lines to the barge, where crew members pulled the boat in and guided it with poles. When the vessel was close to the barge, two large pumps extracted 9,000-11,000 gallons of water from the salvage and returned it to the lake in about 10-15 minutes.
Once the practice boat is safely buoyant, the pontoons are removed, and the faux wreck can be tied to the barge.
After the salvage was raised, the equipment was repacked, and the final test was conducted. Students relaxed and smiled. But unlike a real salvage operation, this vessel will not be scrapped and recycled. With the test done, the vessel will be resituated, its plugs pulled and sunk for the next class to raise from the depths.
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