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Joseph Beverly MacInnis, CM, physician, diver, poet, author, filmmaker (born 2 March 1937 in Barrie, ON). MacInnis is a specialist in diving medicine and has been involved in underwater projects for most of his career. In 1976, he received the Order of Canada for his contributions to underwater research. MacInnis is also an author and filmmaker and has worked with James Cameron on several projects.
Dr. Joseph MacInnis headed a team studying pollution with the aid of an underwater habitat at Tobermory. Photo taken 5 August 1969.
(photo by Don Dutton/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Underwater Research
Joseph B. MacInnis completed his medical degree at the University of Toronto (1962) and interned at Toronto General Hospital (1963), then lectured at the University of Pennsylvania (1964). But he has spent most of his career on underwater projects. He was the life-support physician for a man-in-sea project (1964), directed 75 dives at the Linde Research Laboratory (1965) and was a consultant to the American Medical Association Journal (1966) and to Sealab III (1967). In 1969, he helped draft Canada’s first national ocean policy with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
In 1969, MacInnis developed an underwater contained environment with funding from the National Geographic Society; known as Sublimnos, it was submerged in Little Dunks Bay, a cove of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. In 1972, he and his team developed the Sub-Igloo, a transparent non-corrodible undersea refuge. Sitting on the floor of Resolute Bay in the Northwest Passage, it became the first manned underwater research station in the Arctic.
The Sub-Igloo was a plastic sphere designed by underwater expert Dr. Joseph MacInnis for use as a manned research station in northern seas. It was unveiled in July 1972 at Ontario Place. Five companies helped build the sphere. Shown are Dr. MacInnis (left) and Don King of King Plastics. Photo taken 10 July 1972.
(photo by Ron Bull/Toronto Start via Getty Images)
MacInnis led 10 arctic underwater expeditions from 1970 to 1974 funded by the Canadian government. In total, he has been involved in over 50 underseas projects with the Canadian government, French government, US Navy and Russian Academy of Science.
MacInnis has participated in many diving expeditions, including a 700-foot dive (213 m) from the first lock-out submarine (1968). He led the team on an arctic dive in which the Breadalbane, a ship sunk in 1853, was discovered off Beechey Island (1980). He later participated in a dive to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1994). He also advised the team that discovered the Titanic in 1985.
Did you know?
In 1975, Joseph MacInnis accompanied the future King Charles III in a dive under the arctic ice. During the prince’s time in the Arctic, he also participated in dogsledding and snowmobiling.
Filmmaking
Joseph MacInnis’s interest in merging arts with science found expression in Underwater Images (1971), in which his own photographs of underwater life are accompanied by his poems. He has also been involved in films and television programs for CBS, CBC, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, among others. A film, Deep Androsia, received a Gold Medal of Excellence at the International Film Festival, Santa Monica (1965).
In August 1987, MacInnis joined the French team diving to investigate the wreckage of the Titanic. He later brought along an IMAX film crew to document the project and was co-executive producer of the 1992 IMAX movie Titanica. MacInnis was a mentor to filmmaker James Cameron and invited him to the IMAX film’s premiere. Cameron would go on to make blockbuster film Titanic in 1997. MacInnis was also a medical advisor for the James Cameron-National Geographic dive into the Mariana Trench and worked with Cameron on the IMAX film Aliens of the Deep.
Books
Joseph B. MacInnis, Underwater Man (1975)
Joseph B. MacInnis, The Land That Devours Ships: The Search for the Breadalbane (1985)
Joseph B. MacInnis, Titanic in a New Light (1992)
Joseph B. MacInnis, ed., Saving the Oceans (1992)
Joseph B. MacInnis, Fitzgerald’s Storm: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1997)
Joseph B. MacInnis, Surviving Terrorism: How to Protect Your Health, Wealth and Safety (2002)
Joseph B. MacInnis, Breathing Underwater: The Quest to Live in the Sea (2004)
Joseph B. MacInnis, James Cameron’s Aliens of the Deep (2005)
Joseph B. MacInnis, Deep Leadership: Essential Insights from High-Risk Environments (2012)
Joseph B. MacInnis, Doctor of the Deep: A Life Under Pressure (2026)
