He Likes to Be, Below the Sea: Florida Man Units File for Dwelling Underwater

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) — A college professor broke a report for the longest time dwelling underwater with out depressurization this weekend at a Florida Keys lodge for scuba divers.

Joseph Dituri’s 74th day residing in Jules’ Undersea Lodge, located on the backside of a 30-foot-deep lagoon in Key Largo, wasn’t a lot totally different than his earlier days there since he submerged March 1.

Dituri, who additionally goes by the moniker “Dr. Deep Sea,” ate a protein-heavy meal of eggs and salmon ready utilizing a microwave, exercised with resistance bands, did his day by day pushups and took an hour-long nap. Not like a submarine, the lodge doesn’t use know-how to regulate for the elevated underwater strain.

The earlier report of 73 days, two hours and 34 minutes was set by two Tennessee professors — Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain — on the identical location in 2014.

However Dituri is not simply settling for the report and resurfacing: He plans to remain on the lodge till June 9, when he reaches 100 days and completes an underwater mission dubbed Venture Neptune 100.

The mission combines medical and ocean analysis together with academic outreach and was organized by the Marine Sources Growth Basis, proprietor of the habitat.

“The report is a small bump and I actually recognize it,” mentioned Dituri, a College 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, however we nonetheless have extra science to do.”

His analysis consists of day by day experiments in physiology to watch how the human physique responds to long-term publicity to excessive strain.

“The thought right here is to populate the world’s oceans, to maintain them by dwelling in them and actually treating them effectively,” Dituri mentioned.

The outreach portion of Dituri’s mission consists of conducting on-line courses and broadcast interviews from his digital studio beneath the ocean. Throughout the previous 74 days, he has reached over 2,500 college students by on-line courses in marine science and extra together with his common biomedical engineering programs on the College of South Florida.

Whereas he says he loves dwelling below the ocean, there may be one factor he actually misses.

“The factor that I miss probably the most about being on the floor is actually the solar,” Dituri mentioned. “The solar has been a significant factor in my life – I normally go to the gymnasium at 5 after which I come again out and watch the dawn.”

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