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 1990s.
The psychology of Aquaphilia was the subject of a paper by 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.