by Anthony DeMatteo
Staff Writer
It’s a dangerous job, and Wesley Skiles is sticking with it.
The Jacksonville native began cave diving in 1968, when the Florida Aquifer was virtually unexplored. Nearly 40 years later, he’s explored and recorded underwater sites throughout the world.
“One of the things I discovered early on was Florida’s springs and diving down inside of them,” said Skiles. “Since then, I’ve mapped over 400 miles of unexplored cave passageways in South Florida, and that’s led to a lot of important science and understanding.”
At yesterday’s meeting of the Jacksonville Rotary Club held at the Omni, Skiles showed slides of a recent trip he and other explorers made to the Yucatan Peninsula. There, his team found six previously undiscovered species and Mayan skeletons, including one tomb containing the remains of a man, a child and a dog.
He said a Mayan skeleton of a man 6-foot-3 inches in height astounded scientists on the project. Skiles said it was the most intact skeleton discovered by paleontologists in the area’s history. A scientist on the project theorized that the man died in a human sacrifice.
“The science proved to be confounding, yet very impressive,” said Skiles. “On one of the dives, we discovered the oldest known female skeleton in that region, dated 12,000 years old. She was 400 feet back inside the cave.”
He said discovering the six species was a memorable experience for him and the team.
“It was pretty phenomenal,” he said. “ It’s very rewarding to develop the awareness in an environment and pick out things you know you’ve never seen before.”
Skiles created and directs the PBS series, “Water’s Journey,” and has made dozens of films depicting underwater exploration.
His business is a dangerous one. Skiles said he has lost 24 friends who died while cave diving.
“I just lost my 24th friend on Valentine’s Day,” he said. “It’s a rough sport. Per attempt, it’s probably the most dangerous sport on the planet.”
Skiles, who said many of the areas he swims have been submerged by the steady effects of global warming, is planning a trip back to South America this summer.
In Florida caves, Skiles has found remains of Sabertooth Tigers, Mammoths and long extinct predatory birds.
“One of the frightening discoveries recently ... we found 62 pharmaceutical compounds in the water, birth control, pain killers, antibiotics,” he said. “Everything that we consume and export and flush down either septic tanks or wastewater treatment systems is making it down to the ground.”
Skiles said he has gotten the “bends,” caused by breathing nitrogen and other gases, more times than he can remember and has so often been in “recompression” chambers that he’s earned a free session.
But he has no plans to quit.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “As technology continues to evolve and our techniques continue to grow, we will continue to push out there.”