Dr. Joseph Dituri broke a record for living underwater. But even after he passed 74 days beneath the sea, he didn’t come up for air. Dituri’s mission: Stay below for 100 days.
The mission combined medical and ocean research along with educational outreach. “Dr. Deep Sea” stayed in Jules’ Undersea Lodge at the bottom of a 30-foot-deep lagoon in Key Largo, Florida. Two Tennessee professors set the previous record (73 days) there in 2014.
Dituri spent 28 years in the U.S. Navy. He was a diving special operations officer. Then he earned a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. “Many of my brothers and sisters in the military suffered traumatic brain injuries and I wanted to learn how to help them,” Dituri says. He thinks hyperbaric medicine, which involves breathing oxygen inside a high-pressure chamber, could treat those injuries and other diseases.
His research included monitoring how the human body responds to long-term exposure to pressure. To keep water out, the lodge must constantly pump air in. That gives the hotel an air pressure 1.6 times higher than the Earth’s surface. A previous study indicated that increased pressure might help cells grow. Dituri wonders: Could that help people find ways to live longer and prevent diseases related to aging?
Before going under, the researcher took lots of psychological and medical tests, including blood panels, ultrasounds, and electrocardiograms. A team of doctors tracked his medical data throughout the mission. Weekly psychological interviews checked on his mental health.
Jules’ Undersea Lodge is made up of two 13-foot-long tubes. A wet room between them allows people to enter and exit. One tube contains bunks. The other holds a kitchen and living room area. Don’t worry—there’s also a toilet.
Even in his cramped quarters, Dituri kept busy. He taught online biomedical engineering and marine science classes. Sometimes, he went for a swim.
Dituri’s record-breaking day wasn’t much different than the previous 73 days. He ate eggs and salmon. He exercised with resistance bands and took an hour-long nap.
The professor says he loved living under the ocean. But he missed the Sun. On the surface, he watches the sunrise every day.
Dituri suggests that more people live in oceans. He thinks people can “take care of them by living in them and really treating them well.”
If I . . . dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. — Psalm 139:9-10
Why? Motivated people like Joseph Dituri can do amazing things in pursuit of knowledge. Curiosity and perseverance are gifts from God.
