Scientist lives underwater for weeks to raise ocean awareness

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  Living under the sea is, for some, a nightmare, but, for others, it's an important undertaking to see what oceanic pressure does to the human body.

  Our digital anchor, Nicole Ellis, spoke to one such person who's staying 22 feet below the surface of a lagoon in Key Largo, Florida. He's already long outlasted a previous record for living underwater and hopes to make it to 100 days.

• Nicole Ellis:

  A professor at the University of South Florida has been living underwater without depressurization for over 75 days and plans to stay a little while longer.

  Joe Dituri, also known as Dr. Deep Sea online, joins me now to discuss his journey and research under the sea.

  So, this isn't your first time tackling something like this. What motivated you to do it this time?

  Joseph Dituri, University of South Florida: Oh, interesting question. What motivated me to do this?

  I would say it's the culmination of so far my life's work. And this is basically just the pointy end of the spear. We took all the 28 years of Navy experience, the Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, the zest for life and desire to explore, and we threw it all together, and we're like, what happens to the human body when you leave it in an isolated, confined, extreme environment?

  We will find out.

• Nicole Ellis:

  What do you miss most about being on land? Or what have you grown to appreciate more?

• Joseph Dituri:

  Oh, well, two things very much. Tactile. There's lack of tactile function here, the high-fives, the handshakes, the hugs. There's not a lot of that going on down here.

  And the second thing, which was a little bit surprising to me, the sunlight winds up being something that you really need. You really do need it. And I miss that. And I forget how much I'm driven by the sun.

• Nicole Ellis:

  This is obviously dedicated to and in homage to science. And what are some of the scientific findings and things that you hope to accomplish through your research?

• Joseph Dituri:

  My desire is to give a broader understanding to the world of the mechanism of action of hyperbaric medicine, such that we can apply it across a broad spectrum of things that are happening, like anti-aging for our aging population to increase their vitality and health, including Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, including a lot of things like traumatic brain injury.

• Nicole Ellis:

  What is hyperbaric medicine? And how does this contribute to our understanding of how this could help resolve different issues like traumatic brain injuries?

• Joseph Dituri:

  Terrific question.

  Yes, hyper means more than. Baric means pressure. So all we are doing is hyperbaric medicine. All this is, is pressurizing somebody in — with either oxygen or without oxygen. So here I am underwater for 100 days. And so far, my oxidative stress is cut by two-thirds. Every single inflammatory marker in my body is cut by half.

  And these are preliminary results, mind you. They're only the first phase of them. We have more blood work to do. We have about 200 more blood, urine and saliva tests to do.

• Nicole Ellis:

  So you have been down there for a while now. What does a typical day look like for you?

• Joseph Dituri:

  I wake up at probably around 4:30, 5:00 in the morning. I have always been an early riser.

  I come in, I have a couple of cups of coffee, because guess what, science does not happen without coffee. Bottom line is, I will eat a bunch of eggs in the morning, I will do my checks, figure out all the science that I have to do for the day, and mix it in with whatever interview I happen to have or whatever outreach I have for the kids.

  Mesh all that together, you wind up having about six hours' worth of science, about two or three hours worth of outreach, and about two or three hours worth of interviews or getting in line. And then I always go for a dive.

  Once a day, I get out of this habitat, go swim around the lagoon. Yesterday, I found a seahorse. It was great. The day before that, oh, a manatee was in the lagoon, and I got some great video of the manatee.

• Nicole Ellis:

  As a fellow diver, I am so envious. But as you have mentioned, this is for a purpose.

  And I'm curious to hear from you what you want the world to take away from what you're doing.

• Joseph Dituri:

  We have a threefold purpose. First, I want to find out what happens to the human in the isolated, confined, extreme environment.

  The second part is, we're reaching out to the kids. And when you speak with the kids about science, technology, engineering, and math, they're all high school, grade school kids. And, at first, they're all frumpy, and they're sitting down. But I tell you, by the end of the hour-long lecture, they're hanging on their seat and they're like, don't go, don't go. I have one more question.

  So we're getting them. But — and the third and final thing is, we're talking to experts. Sixty to 70 percent of the world's oxygen comes from the ocean, and we should start taking better care of it. And then I share that with the kids. And we just raise awareness.

  And it is World Oceans Week coming up.

• Nicole Ellis:

  Would you do this again?

• Joseph Dituri:

  Absolutely. Not tomorrow, but I would do it again.

  (LAUGHTER)

• Nicole Ellis:

  Dr. Dituri, thank you so much for joining me.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nicole Ellis.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I hope he makes it to 100 days.

• GEOFF BENNETT:

  His enthusiasm is infectious.

  (CROSSTALK)

• Amna Nawaz:

  Good luck to him.