Description
After spending nearly 100 days underwater, one University of South Florida professor is ready to break the surface on scientific research.
On March 1, Dr. Joseph Dituri, also known as Dr. Deep Sea, dove down 30 feet to Jules’ Undersea Lodge, the 100-square-foot Key Largo vessel that would become his home for the next four months. He's set to re-emerge this Friday, June 9.
Sacrificing homecooked meals, huge family events and sunlight, he broke the record for the longest time living underwater without depressurization on his 74th day back in May.
But, that was never really his goal.
"We broke the record, but I don’t care," he told 10 Tampa Bay in May. “I’m down here for three specific reasons."
The first, Dituri said, is to "see what happens to the human body when you leave it in an isolated, confined, extreme environment."
He explained that using himself as a science experiment will help further his already-extensive research into how hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be used to treat traumatic brain injuries and a broad spectrum of diseases. Dituri already runs his own hyperbaric treatment center, the Undersea Oxygen Clinic, in Tampa.