KEY LARGO, Fla. — For the first time in 100 days, Dr. Joseph Dituri saw the sun and life above the water Friday.

What You Need To Know

  • Dr. Joseph Dituri spent 100 days living underwater in Key Largo

  • Dituri, an associate professor at the University of South Florida, says his goal was to study how pressure impacts a human body

  • Dituri said he's already seen major benefits to his time underwater, aside from perhaps losing half an inch in height

  • He hopes to report his findings at a conference in Scotland later this year

It was a joyful occasion for the dozens of people at Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, marking the end of Project Neptune, which involved Dituri living in an underwater bunker roughly 30 feet below sea level since March 1.

“For 100 days I’ve been exploring,” Dituri said. “I’ve been exploring for life, the life of the oceans and the life for generations to come.”

His main exploration was to see what happens to a person who spends that amount of time under the pressure of the water.

He wants to help people with traumatic brain injuries and PTSD and, preliminarily; he says the results from his time underwater have been incredible.

“My inflammatory markers, every single one of them, are down,” Dituri said. “My stress, overall, is down and this is a pretty stressful situation.”

Shortly after resurfacing from underwater, his sizeable medical team checked him out. They said he is not only healthy but may have discovered benefits of applying hyperbaric pressure to a person who might have brain injuries.

“Hopefully, we have solidified for the world the mechanism of action of hyperbaric medicine,” said Dituri

He says he’ll be able to fully report the discoveries at a conference later this year.

But he understands that this is not something everyone can or should replicate.

He says he most likely lost a half an inch in height and that living in 100 percent humidity made it more difficult to heal from minor cuts on his hands.

Also, spending 100 days away from family and friends is difficult.

However, if you ask Dituri whether the benefits outweigh the detriments, he says no question.

“Life changing,” Dituri said. “Life changing. I hope people feel that same way.”

While living in this facility, he still taught his students at USF and met with hundreds of kids and scientists virtually to talk about his experience. He said he looks forward to the medical progress that’s been made through his record-breaking time underwater.

“It’ll help and apply to many different maladies in humans,” he said.

Dituri said it’ll take months to pour over all the data they collected and to report on what they officially discovered living under that kind of pressure.

For now, though, he can smile and take a deep breath of fresh air, knowing his 100 days under the sea have ended.