Under the sea: Florida professor sets record for living undersea

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP)-- A university teacher broke a record for the longest time living underwater without depressurization this weekend at a Florida Keys lodge for scuba divers.

Joseph Dituri's 74th day living in Jules' Undersea Lodge, located at the bottom of a 30-foot-deep lagoon in Key Largo, wasn't much various than his previous days there considering that he immersed March 1.

Dituri, who also goes by the name "Dr. Deep Sea," consumed a protein-heavy meal of eggs and salmon prepared utilizing a microwave, exercised with resistance bands, did his day-to-day pushups and took an hour-long nap. Unlike a submarine, the lodge does not use technology to change for the increased undersea pressure.

The previous record of 73 days, 2 hours and 34 minutes was set by 2 Tennessee teachers - - Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain - - at the very same area in 2014.

However Dituri isn't just going for the record and resurfacing: He prepares to stay at the lodge till June 9, when he reaches 100 days and finishes an undersea mission dubbed Project Neptune 100.

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The objective integrates medical and ocean research together with academic outreach and was organized by the Marine Resources Development Foundation, owner of the habitat.

" The record is a little bump, and I truly value it," stated Dituri, a University of South Florida educator who holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering and is a retired U.S. Naval officer. "I'm honored to have it, but we still have more science to do."

His research consists of day-to-day experiments in physiology to keep track of how the body reacts to long-lasting exposure to severe pressure.

" The concept here is to populate the world's oceans, to look after them by living in them and truly treating them well," Dituri stated.

The outreach part of Dituri's objective includes performing online classes and broadcast interviews from his digital studio underneath the sea. During the previous 74 days, he has actually reached over 2,500 trainees through online classes in marine science and more with his regular biomedical engineering courses at the University of South Florida.

While he says he loves living under the ocean, there is something he really misses out on.

" The thing that I miss the most about being on the surface area is actually the sun," Dituri stated. "The sun has been a significant factor in my life-- I generally go to the health club at five and after that I come back out and enjoy the dawn."