I just found this thread while browsing. It looks like I made the original post years ago right after I first wrote my book before I knew proper internet etiquette .... I apologise for just signing up to your site and advertising like that!
I am a very lousy get rich quick scammer as I am definitely not rich haha..I dove for balls for many years, even had my own retrieval company... What everyone has said here is correct. it is a dirty nasty dangerous job mainly for the young and fearless that want to make a lot of money quickly... It's definitely not for everyone, I Know 3 people that have drowned doing this .... You can make a lot of money, it's not uncommon to find thousands upon thousands of balls on a single dive... But the danger and the muck you climb in, ear infections you get and the sheer creepy factor of not seeing a damn thing while you dive with beats like gators do make it a job where most that try it say screw the money lol
Anyways I'm a fellow diver, found this thread while searching around and wanted to apologise for being rude with my post all those years ago...