Dr Deep Sea sets world record after spending 100 days underwater for medical research
Dr Joseph Dituri has set a new world record for the longest time living underwater without depressurisation. Discover why he did it
READING LEVEL: GREEN
A university professor who spent 100 days living in an underwater hotel has resurfaced and raised his face to the sun for the first time since March 1.
Dr Joseph Dituri set a new world record for the longest time living underwater without depressurisation* during his stay at Jules’ Undersea Lodge* beneath 9.14m of water in a Key Largo lagoon* in the US state of Florida.
The diving explorer and medical researcher broke the previous record of 73 days, two hours and 34 minutes, set by two professors from the US state of Tennessee at the same hotel in 2014.
“It was never about the record,” Dr Dituri said. “It was about extending human tolerance* for the underwater world and for an isolated, confined*, extreme* environment.”
Guinness World Records listed Dr Dituri as the record holder on its website after his 74th day underwater last month and now the Marine Resources Development Foundation, which owns the hotel and helped organise the attempt, will ask Guinness to certify* his 100-day record.
Dr Dituri, who goes by the nickname “Dr Deep Sea”, is also a retired US Navy officer and has spent his life around water.
He said he had to deal with many challenges during Project Neptune 100.
Unlike a submarine, the hotel does not use technology to reduce the underwater pressure.
The project aimed to learn more about how the human body and mind respond to extreme pressure and an isolated environment over a longer period of time and was designed to help ocean researchers and astronauts on future long-term missions.
Dr Dituri ate a protein-heavy diet, consuming eggs and salmon cooked in a microwave. To stay fit, he exercised using resistance bands and doing push-ups and also made sure he took a one-hour nap each day.
During the three months and nine days he spent underwater, Dr Dituri did daily experiments and took measurements to monitor how his body was responding. Interestingly, the pressure caused him to shrink by 1.2cm.
To keep busy, he met online with several thousand students from 12 countries, taught a university course and welcomed more than 60 visitors to the hotel.
He said the best part was the “interaction* with almost 5000 students and having them care about preserving, protecting and rejuvenating* our marine environment”.
He said the worst part was missing the sun on his face.
He plans to present his findings from Project Neptune 100 at November’s World Extreme Medical Conference in Scotland.
GLOSSARY
- lodge: a place of shelter
- depressurisation: act of releasing pressure from something
- lagoon: a small body of saltwater
- confined: to be kept inside one area
- extreme: the furthest limit or highest degree
- certify: a document proving something is true
- interaction: responding to one another
- rejuvenating: bring back to its original state
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QUICK QUIZ
1. What record did the professor break?
2. How many days was he underwater?
3. What is Dr Dituri’s nickname?
4. What is different in the lodge and being in a submarine?
5. Name four activities the professor did while underwater.
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Underwater village
Design an underwater village for a small community of people that might like to live under the sea on a more permanent basis.
You need to consider some of the following points when designing your village:
• How to set the pressure so that humans can live comfortably
• How humans will get around the village
• How and where they can socialise
• Housing arrangements
• Supplies of food, water and other essentials
Give your village a name and make an A4 tourism brochure enticing people to want to come and live there.
Present your brochure to the class.
Time: allow 60 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Science; Design and Technologies; Personal and Social; Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
What health issues might arise for this researcher and others, wanting to try and live underwater for a long period of time?
How could scientists overcome these issues to keep humans healthy under the sea?
Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Science; Health and Physical Education; Personal and Social; Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
Underwater adventure descriptions
Objective: To explore descriptive writing by creating vivid descriptions based on the information in the article.
Instructions:
1. As a class, read a text to the class. Then re-read asking the students to focus on listing descriptive language on their whiteboards.
2. Divide the students into pairs or small groups.
3. Explain to the students that they will imagine themselves as underwater adventurers, and their task is to create descriptive paragraphs about the underwater world, inspired by the article.
4. Provide each group with a set of descriptive word cards. These can be pre-prepared cards with different adjectives, adverbs, and sensory words written on them.
Examples of descriptive words for the underwater world are: mysterious, tranquil, shimmering, gracefully, mesmerising, vibrant, etc.
5. Ask each group to choose a different aspect of the underwater world mentioned in the article (e.g., the lodge, the lagoon, marine life, the pressure, etc.).
6. Give the groups some time to discuss and brainstorm ideas about their chosen aspect. Encourage them to use the descriptive word cards to enhance their descriptions.
7. Each group should then write a descriptive paragraph or two about their chosen aspect, incorporating as many descriptive words as possible.
8. Remind them to use their senses (sight, sound, touch, etc.) to make their descriptions vivid and engaging.
9. After the writing is complete, ask each group to share their descriptive paragraphs with the rest of the class.
As each group shares, encourage the other students to visualise the underwater world based on the descriptions and provide feedback or ask questions about specific details that caught their attention.
Note: Encourage the students to use their imaginations and think beyond what is mentioned in the article. Remind them to focus on creating vivid and descriptive language to bring the underwater world to life for the reader.
Variations:
- Create a class display of the descriptive paragraphs, showcasing the students’ creativity and descriptive writing skills. Have students make pictures of underwater creatures to bring the display to life.
- To add a collaborative element, you can have each group write their descriptive paragraphs on separate sheets of paper and then pass them to another group. The receiving group can illustrate the descriptions based on their interpretation.
- To make it more interactive, you can have a “Guess the Aspect” game where each group reads their descriptive paragraph without revealing the aspect they are describing. The other groups can try to guess which aspect of the underwater world is being described.