Over the weekend, a university professor named Joseph Dituri set a new record for the longest time spent living underwater without depressurization. He achieved this feat while staying at Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, which is a popular destination for scuba divers and is located at the bottom of a 30-foot-deep lagoon.
Dituri has been living there since March 1, and his 74th day was no different from his previous ones. He ate a meal consisting of protein-rich eggs and salmon, worked out with resistance bands, did his daily push-ups, and took a nap that lasted an hour. Unlike a submarine, the lodge does not use technology to adjust to the increased underwater pressure. The moniker “Dr. Deep Sea” is also attributed to Dituri.
In 2014, Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain, two professors from Tennessee, set the previous record of 73 days, two hours, and 34 minutes for staying underwater without depressurization at Jules’ Undersea Lodge. Joseph Dituri, the current record holder, plans to stay at the lodge until June 9 and complete an underwater mission called Project Neptune 100, which combines medical and ocean research with educational outreach.
The mission was organized by the Marine Resources Development Foundation, which owns the habitat. Dituri, a University of South Florida educator with a doctorate in biomedical engineering and a retired U.S. naval officer, said that while he is honored to have broken the record, there is still more science to be done.
Dituri’s research involves conducting daily physiological experiments to monitor how the human body responds to extended exposure to high pressure. He believes that by inhabiting and taking care of the oceans, we can help preserve them. “The idea here is to populate the world’s oceans, to take care of them by living in them and really treating them well,” he explained.
As part of his mission, Dituri is also conducting online classes and giving broadcast interviews from his digital studio beneath the sea, as part of an outreach program.
Over the past 74 days, he has reached more than 2,500 students through online classes in marine science, in addition to his regular biomedical engineering courses at the University of South Florida.
While he says he loves living under the ocean, there is one thing he really misses.
“The thing that I miss the most about being on the surface is literally the sun,” Dituri said. “The sun has been a major factor in my life – I usually go to the gym at five and then I come back out and watch the sunrise.”