The mission of the AAUS is to advance and facilitate safe and productive scientific diving. Organizational membership includes colleges and universities, government agencies, museums and aquaria, environmental and archaeological consulting firms, and community science groups—all sharing a common thread of the use of diving as a research tool and a commitment to the health and safety of scientific divers. AAUS produces standards for the training and certification of scientific divers and the operation of scientific diving programs, maintains statistics detailing scientific diving activities and incident rates, and conducts annual symposia and topical workshops.