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Snorkeling is swimming with a snorkel — a mask and a tube — that allows you to breath through your mouth when floating underwater near the surface of the water. Scuba diving allows you to go deep inside the water to examine the bed of the sea or lake, wearing a tight fitting diving suit, and breathing through an oxygen tank.

Comparison chart

	Scuba Diving	Snorkeling
Purposes	Recreational purposes, including cave diving, wreck diving, and ice diving. Professional purposes, including for civil engineering, underwater welding, offshore construction or for military purposes.	Recreational purposes include observing fish and algae and coral reefs especially in water bodies with minimal waves and warm waters; also interesting things to see near the water surface.
Technique	The swimmers entire body is under the water. The diver's nose and eyes are covered by a diving mask; the diver cannot breathe in through the nose, except when wearing a full face diving mask, but adapts to inhaling from a regulator's mouthpiece.	Head & nose underwater. The snorkel tube can flood underwater. The snorkeler expels water either with a sharp exhalation on return to the surface or by tilting the head back shortly before reaching surface.
Underwater duration	Can stay under water longer as one does not need to hold ones breath.	Need to hold breath to swim under the surface of the water.
Equipment	Pressurized gas tank strapped to the back of the diver, single hose, open-circuit 2-stage diving regulator with the first stage connected to the gas tank and the second to a mouthpiece, swim fins attached to feet, diving suit.	Diving mask, L or J shaped tube with a mouthpiece at the lower end and sometimes swim fins attached to feet.
About	A form of underwater diving with breathing equipment. Stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.	Swimming on or through a body of water with a snorkeling mask.
Training	Requires training in how to use the breathing equipment, safety procedures and troubleshooting. Although no centralized certifying or regulatory agency many dive rental and sale shops require proof of diver certification.	Requires no training. Snorkelers favor shallow reefs ranging from sea level to 3-12 feet. Deeper reefs are also good, but repeated breath holding to dive to those depths limit the number of practitioners and raises the bar on fitness and skill level.
Effect on Health	Effects of breathing compressed air such as decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, refraction and underwater vision.	Greatest danger is not being spotted by jet skis & crafts, as a diver is often submerged under water with only a tube sticking out of the water. Contact with poisonous coral, dehydration and hyperventilation. Sun burn is also common with long hours.