A man in Germany is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest time spent living in an underwater fixed habitat.
Rüdiger Koch has spent more than 60 days so far in an underwater capsule off the coast of Puerto Lindo, Panama, in the Caribbean Sea. He’s halfway to his goal.
“The last time I checked, I was still married,” he joked to AFP.
Koch, 59, began his underwater lifestyle on Sept. 26 and plans to come back to land on Jan. 24 — 120 days later.
The current record for the longest time spent living in an underwater fixed habitat is 100 days, achieved by American Joseph Dituri just off the coast of Key Largo, Florida, from March to June 2023.
Koch has been living and working underwater in his 322-square-foot living space, complete with a portable toilet, TV, computer, stationary bike, multiple fans, satellite internet and solar power.
The aerospace engineer admitted to CBS News that he misses a real shower in his capsule 36 feet below the surface — sharing that that’s the first thing he’s going to do when he returns to land.
The underwater home has a vertical tube attaching it to another chamber above water, which holds other members of his team and is how food is sent down to him.
People can also go down the tube to pay a visit. Other than journalists and media, Koch’s only visitors have been his doctor, his wife and his kids.
Four cameras monitor Koch, capturing his day-to-day life and providing proof that he has been underwater the entire time, as well as allowing his team to check in on his health.
“I don’t feel like I’m suffering down here, not at all,” Koch said. “That hardest is probably, sometimes I would like to go diving.”
He added that life underwater is much calmer than city life, and he has a team looking on from a research lab above ground.
Koch wants to do more than break a record — he believes that moving to the ocean is something that the human species “should” do.
“What we are trying to do here is prove that the seas are actually a viable environment for human expansion,” he explained to AFP.
There’s also an environmental benefit for sea life as well, with the underwater chamber acting as an artificial reef and a shelter for fish.
“In the night, you can hear all the crustaceans,” he said. “There’s the fish out there, and there’s all that stuff, and that wasn’t here before we came.”
