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Underwater living makes a splash - 9th December 2024

A bid to set a new world record for living continuously underwater is in progress. Setting his sights on 120-150 days, Rüdiger Koch, a German aerospace engineer, is challenging the current 100-day Guinness World Record. Enclosed in a SeaPod off the Panamanian coast, where the closest land is an island 1.2 kilometres away, he's at a watery depth of 11 metres.

Topping the world record, however, is only part of Koch's ambitions for this bizarre underwater sojourn.

Rüdiger Koch: "So, what we are trying to do here is proving that the seas are actually a viable environment for, erm, human expansion. So, push the frontier."

The ecologically-sound capsule is composed of an external pearl-like material well-suited to the generation of a marine habitat for fishes and corals.

Koch co-founded Ocean Builders, the innovators behind these original homes, and his crew are stationed in a circular pod which sits above the water’s surface. The entrepreneurs wish to showcase the immense potential of sea-living via their record-breaking challenge, marking a mammoth leap forward in pioneering sustainable habitats for the human race.

Rüdiger Koch: "Moving out that that the, to the ocean is is is something we should do as a species. So there should be many people living out in the ocean, not just myself and a few others. So, umm, that would be actually a contribution to restore things like reefs."

In compliance with the Guinness rulebook, Koch's forbidden from surfacing, and his everyday movements are meticulously monitored. He confesses to having itchy feet and is longing to dive into the tantalizing waters lapping against his temporary oceanic home. The feasibility of converting one of the windows into an airlock is being investigated by Koch's specialist team.

Having begun his confinement beneath the waves on 26th September, if all goes according to plan, the engineer will emerge after 24th January 2025.