KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) – This past weekend, at a lodge in the Florida Keys that caters to scuba divers, a professor from a nearby institution set a new record for the longest period spent living below without depressurization.
The 74th day that Joseph Dituri spent living at Jules’ Undersea Lodge, which is located at the bottom of a lagoon in Key Largo that is 30 feet deep, was not all that unlike the prior days that he has spent there since he sunk on March 1.
Dituri, who is also known by the title “Dr. Deep Sea,” began his day with a breakfast high in protein that included eggs and salmon that was warmed in a microwave. He then performed his daily pushup routine, exercised with resistance bands, and napped for an hour. The lodge, in contrast to a submarine, does not have any equipment that can compensate for the higher pressure found underwater.
The previous record, which stood for 73 days, two hours, and 34 minutes, was established in 2014 at the same place by two academics from the state of Tennessee named Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain.
However, Dituri is not content to simply break the record and return to the surface; rather, he intends to remain at the lodge until June 9, the day he hits 100 days below and completes a mission that has been given the name Project Neptune 100.
The Marine Resources Development Foundation, which is also the owner of the habitat, is responsible for organizing the mission, which consists of educational outreach in addition to medical and ocean research.
“The record is a small bump and I really appreciate it,” said Dituri, an educator at the University of South Florida who holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering and is a former officer in the United States Navy. Dituri also served in the United States Navy. “It is a privilege to have it, but there is still more research that needs to be done.”
As part of his study, he conducts physiological studies on a regular basis in order to see how the human body reacts after being subjected to high pressure for an extended period of time.
According to Dituri, “The idea here is to populate the world’s oceans, to take care of them by living in them and really treating them well,”
In order to fulfill the outreach component of his purpose, Dituri will teach online seminars and host broadcast interviews from his digital studio located deep below the ocean’s surface. Over the course of the previous seventy-four days, he has taught over two thousand and five hundred students at the University of South Florida through his regularly scheduled biomedical engineering seminars in addition to his online marine science programs.
In spite of the fact that he claims to like living under the sea, there is one thing in particular that he longs for.
“The sun is literally the thing that I miss the most about being on the surface,” said Dituri. “It was my favorite part of being there.” “The sun has been a significant influence on my life. After working out at five in the morning, I frequently come back outside to watch the sunrise.”