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News: Roane State educators living underwater pass more milestones

Portrait of Jessica Fain and Bruce Cantrell

Jessica Fain and Bruce Cantrell

Nov. 4, 2014

Roane State Community College educators Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain have passed two milestones as they continue to pursue a world record for longest time spent living underwater.

Cantrell, a biology professor, and Fain, an adjunct professor, are living and working in an underwater habitat — Jules’ Undersea Lodge on Key Largo in the Florida Keys — for 73 days.

They entered the habitat on Oct. 3.

On Monday, Nov. 3, Fain and Cantrell had lived underwater for 31 days, surpassing the 30-day mark set by famed explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s oceanauts in Conshelf II (1963) and by astronaut Scott Carpenter in SEALAB II (1965).

Conshelf II was a project, led by Cousteau, to create an ocean-floor habitat for humans. The U.S. Navy’s SEALAB program was an effort in the 1960s to experiment with underwater habitats.

On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Fain and Cantrell’s 32 days underwater surpassed the 31-day mark recorded this summer by Fabien Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau’s grandson, in the underwater habitat Aquarius.

“Jessica and I are proud and humbled to add our modest contributions to the great work of Jacques Cousteau, Scott Carpenter and Fabien Cousteau,” Cantrell said. “They inspired us, and we share their vision to teach others the wonder of the oceans and the importance of conserving our environment."

Fain and Cantrell plan to resurface Dec. 15 after 73 days underwater. The current overall record for living underwater (69 days, 19 minutes) was set by Richard Presley in 1992, according to Guinness World Records.

On Oct. 18, Fain also set the record for a female living underwater. The previous mark was 14 days, set in 1970 by renowned scientist Dr. Sylvia Earle and her team during their stay in the Tektite habitat. The Tektite program was the first nationally sponsored effort to place scientists in the sea to live.

While living in Jules’ Undersea Lodge, which is about 25 feet deep, Fain and Cantrell are hosting “Classroom Under the Sea,” an online lecture series presented by Roane State and the Marine Resources Development Foundation on Key Largo.

Classroom Under the Sea episodes will be streamed live on YouTube each Thursday – excluding Thanksgiving — through Dec. 11. To watch live episodes or previous episodes, go to youtube.com/classroomunderthesea.

For more information about the Classroom Under the Sea, visit roanestate.edu/classroomunderthesea.

Roane State is a two-year, 6200-student college with nine campuses in East Tennessee. For more information, visit roanestate.edu.

Tennessee’s Community Colleges is a system of 13 colleges offering a high-quality, affordable, convenient and personal education to prepare students to achieve their educational and career goals in two years or less. All colleges in the system offer associate degree and certificate programs, workforce development programs and transfer pathways to four-year degrees. For more information, please visit tncommunitycolleges.org.

Located on Key Largo in the Florida Keys, the Marine Resources Development Foundation is a nonprofit organization with the goal of developing a better understanding of Earth's marine resources. For more information, visit www.mrdf.org.

Jules’ Undersea Lodge was the undersea research habitat called “La Chalupa,” which Marine Resources Development Foundation operated from 1971-1976.  Several missions were conducted in the habitat, including two at a depth of 100 feet.  In 1986, the habitat started a new life as Jules’ Undersea Lodge, which is the only underwater hotel in the world and accessible to any recreational diver.  Learn more at www.jul.com.

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