Fallen Heroes

Vito Bertucci (MEGALODON MAN)
May he rest in peace knowing he was the King
of Megalodon Shark Tooth Diving.
Savanah Georgia
October 20, 2004
After
nearly a week of searching, the Bryan County Sheriff's Office says a fisherman discovered the body of 48-year-old
Vito Bertucci of Port Royal Thursday morning when it surfaced in Ossabaw Sound in Chatham County.
The Coast Guard says 48-year-old Vito Bertucci from Port Royal went diving in the Ogeechee
River near the Inter-coastal Waterway in Bryan county about 2:30pm Sunday and told his partner he would surface in about 2
hours, but never came up. The Coast Guard says the friend in the boat reported the diver missing about 5:00pm Sunday.
Search teams with the Coast Guard, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Chatham and Bryan
counties scoured the water for him Sunday night and Monday. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Bryan County Sheriff's
Office Marine Rescue Squad and a Beaufort Volunteer Dive Search crew continued looking for Bertucci Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday.
Local divers say Bertucci is an experienced diver, and he was collecting
Megalodon sharks teeth for a museum he operated in South Carolina. Some divers also say he took a deadly risk diving in a
10-feet current. Dive teams say it was an exhausting search in the Ogeechee River, in an area one diver described as
a black hole.
"There's a deep hole there and there's a lot of debris in that
area. There are trees and what not, nets and stuff, crab traps and crab floats, that type of thing. Anything is possible,"
said Sgt. James Shelton with GADNR.
The DNR says Bertucci was looking for
fossilized Megalodon shark teeth and whale bones and he was wearing weights so he could search the bottom of the river more
easily. He was searching in what divers call black water. With all the sediment churned up, divers say it's a very dangerous
experience because you can't see anything, leaving divers to feel their way around.
"You
can't see anything except what's underneath your light on your belly," said Ralph Neely, a master diver trainer with
Zero Gravity in Savannah.
Neely says he knows Bertucci, and he was weighted down
with more than 140 pounds of equipment.
"This man's never going to float,
not going to happen," said Neely.
Neely says with 30 years diving experience
he would have never gone diving in Sunday’s 10-feet current.
"Think
about what it takes to chase the Atlantic Ocean up a wall ten feet. He could have had a heart attack. This hole he was in,
the man that found it Terri Lee, he's been in and out chased by bull sharks. A lot of bull sharks like to hang around
there," said Neely
Neely says he’s gone looking for artifacts himself
and loves the thrill of discovery.
"You find fossil Megalodon sharks teeth
between 8 and 11 million years old, that's fascinating. It's not eccentric. It's addictive," said Neely.
The Department of Natural Resources says Georgia law only requires divers to
put up a flag to mark their dive and for boats to stay 100 feet away. The DNR says certification is only required to fill
oxygen tanks.
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