The grandson of famous French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau is on dry land after spending 31 days in an underwater laboratory in the Florida Keys.
Fabien Cousteau, along with teams of researchers and filmmakers, began a 16-hour stint Tuesday in a school bus-sized decompression chamber that allowed them to return to the surface while avoiding decompression sickness, commonly referred to as the bends.
Cousteau has been in the Aquarius underwater habitat 63 feet deep on the ocean floor off Key Largo since June 1.
Cousteau said his aim was to highlight support for marine conservation, but scientific research on the coral reefs surrounding Aquarius was also conducted by science teams from Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who took turns in the underwater laboratory during Cousteau's record-breaking stay.
The previous record duration for living and working under water was held by Cousteau's grandfather Jacques, who spent 30 days in a similar habitat 30 feet beneath the Red Sea off Sudan in 1963.
The 43-foot-long Aquarius lab, which is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and operated by Florida International University, has amenities including air conditioning, six bunk beds, a bathroom, mini-kitchen, portholes to allow its occupants to observe passing marine life, and even Wi-Fi.
Still, the month-long project, dubbed Mission 31, didn't go off completely without glitches.
"One night the air conditioning stopped working and it got to 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity," said Andrew Shantz, an FIU doctoral student in marine science who lived for 17 days in Aquarius at the start of June.
Even with such hurdles, the ability to spend hours in research dives to study the marine environment without having to return to the surface or undergo decompression was invaluable, Cousteau said.
"The FIU researchers have accomplished more than six months' worth of data gathering in just two weeks because they were here, living under the sea in this undersea habitat," he said. "This highlights how important a habitat is for scientific research as well as outreach."
During the mission, the public was able to follow its progress as Cousteau and the scientists conducted frequent online broadcasts.
"I think it's paramount to learn more about the ocean, not just for science, which is incredibly important, but also for ourselves," Cousteau said. "This is our life support system. Otherwise, we are just a little brown rock in space like all the others. There's no such thing as healthy people without a healthy ocean."
