WATCH: Florida professor breaks record living underwater

Every day for more than two months, Joseph Dituri has woken up underwater.

He spoke to digital anchor Nicole Ellis in a conversation about his time there.

The professor and retired U.S. Naval officer, who goes by “Dr. Deep Sea” on social media, has broken the record for number of days living underwater in an environment without depressurization — in this case, in Jules’ Undersea Lodge, a hotel 30 feet below the surface of a lagoon in Key Largo, Florida. He’s been there for more than 90 days, far surpassing the previous record of 73 days, which was set by two Tennessee professors in 2014 at the same location.

Dituri plans to stay there until he reaches 100 days, motivated by his “zest for life and desire to explore,” but also a research mission that is studying what extreme pressure does to the body over time — and specifically, the effects of hyperbaric medicine, or the use of oxygen at a higher pressure level than our atmosphere.

This video was produced by Casey Kuhn, Yasmeen Alamiri, and Julia Griffin.

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