This week, a marine scientist broke the record for the longest time spent living underwater. And though he has already surpassed the previous record of 73 days, he still has a month to go in his underwater schedule.
Videos by Outdoors
Dr. Joseph Dituri, aka Dr. Deep Sea, is the focus of Project Neptune, a 100-day study of the physiological and psychological effects of compression on the human body.
But the project has also been billed as a conservation and outreach effort. In addition to conducting experiments, Dituri has been broadcasting his experiences on social media and performing demonstrations.
Besides Q&A sessions, the videos range from explanations about the types of experiments being conducted like seeing what’s growing inside of his ear to daily routines like cooking breakfast.
For the project, Dituri has been living 22 feet below the water off the coast of Key Largo, Florida inside Jules’ Undersea Lodge, which originated as a research laboratory but later became a tourist attraction.
The previous record for living underwater was also set at the undersea park in 2014 by two Tennessee college professors with a similar mission. And before that, in 1992, a 33-year-old man participating in a NASA experiment set the record of 60 days living underwater.
In a video marking the record-breaking event, Dituri explained that so far they’ve exceeded their outreach effort by reaching more than 2,500 schoolchildren at 90 different locations and in 10 different countries. “It feels like time has flown by because I’ve been doing scientific experiments,” Dituri said.
