CALAIS — Rick Benoit, owner of the Kissing Fish Dive Shack on Main Street, this week completed an intensive 62-hour course and has received his instructor certification from the National Association Underwater Instructors.

Benoit, 36, also is accredited by the International Diving Educators Association. The curriculum for the four-day course included instructor-level rescue, diving physics, educational theory, classroom concepts, distance swimming, scuba law and organizational introduction.

NAUI, with headquarters in Montclair, Calif., was organized as a nonprofit education association in 1959.