Aquaphilia is a term used to describe a form of sexual fetishism which involves images of people swimming or posing underwater, and sexual activity in or under water. Literally “water lover” from the Latin Aqua and Greek Phili.

Some subsets of this category are underwater glamour, underwater fashion (models posing underwater, often while fully clothed), scuba fetishism, rubber (people in skin-tight rubber wetsuits), simulated or fantasy drowning (often incorporating asphyxiation), mermaids, and underwater sex.

The term “Aquaphile” was first used by Phil Bolton, when he created the “Aquaphiles Journal” – an online magazine for followers of the underwater erotica scene published in the 1990’s.

The psychology of Aquaphilia was the subject of a paper by the late Dr Corinne Lamberth (a therapeautic counsellor based in Lewisham, South London) in 1998. A copy of this paper was published in the Aquaphiles Journal in early 1999.

Aquaphilia as a fetish has numerous followers, as exemplified by the number of different websites that can be found discussing the subject.

As with many fetishes, there are several producers of specialist underwater and aquaphile media, including photographers, video producers and authors.