NBC 6- A researcher who broke the record for longest underwater habitation in the Florida Keys resurfaced on Friday.
Diving explorer and medical researcher Dr. Joseph Dituri broke the record for the longest time living underwater at ambient pressure last month, on his 74th day residing in the Jules Undersea Lodge habitat in Key Largo.
When he resurfaced Friday, it marked 100 days in the habitat.
“I’m itching to get back to work, I’m itching to get back to spending time with loved ones and family,” Dituri told reporters after resurfacing. “That isolation, you know, the setting aside, you can only get so much contact out of a video teleconference, it’s just not enough, we need that physical contact.”
The previous record of 73 days, two hours and 34 minutes was set by two professors from Tennessee – Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain – at the same location in 2014.
“I feel amazing, I really do,” he said.
The underwater mission dubbed Project Neptune 100 combines medical and ocean research along with educational outreach and was organized by the Marine Resources Development Foundation, owner of the habitat.
“The record is a small bump and we love it, and I really appreciate it and I’m honored to have it, but we still have more science to do; the science doesn’t stop here,” Dituri said previously.
His research included daily experiments in physiology to monitor how the human body responds to long-term exposure to extreme pressure.
“His liver function his kidney function is slightly improved, his inflammatory markers have dropped so risk of heart attack and stroke has dropped because of his time down there and also his testosterone has gone up,” said Dr. Sarah Spelsberg, who monitored Dituri’s health along the way.
The results will hopefully benefit astronauts living on the International Space Station and participating in other future long-term space missions, and ocean researchers seeking to study the marine environment for extended periods of time.
