Last Wednesday, Fabien Cousteau and his team succeeded at breaking the record for most consecutive days spent underwater. Fabien was inspired by his grandfather, oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s Conshelf II mission, which required him to live underwater for 30 days in the Red Sea while filming the documentary World Without Sun in 1963. Fabien broke his grandfather’s record by just one day.

“It was amazing how much it felt like home,” Fabien told The Guardian. “I can imagine for someone who doesn’t like tight spaces it could be much more difficult.”

He and two other scientists, Mark Hulsbeck and Ryan LaPete, passed the time in the world’s only underwater laboratory, Aquarius, which weighs 81 tons, includes six beds, a small kitchen, hot water, air conditioning, as well as a computer lab. While Fabien and the two scientists remained underwater at all times, they welcomed a number of visiting scientists. The vessel is operated by the Florida International University, and was settled 63 feet below the water’s surface in the Florida Keys for the 31-day stay.

Hoping to bring awareness to oceanography in a way his grandfather could not, Fabien took to social media to share the entire experience. “The goal was symbolically to reach about 331 million people around the world,” he told the Miami Herald. “We hit six continents and we’re waiting for the matrix, but I believe we are way beyond that. We were using tools [my grandfather] only dreamed of but were just not in existence when he passed away [in 1997].”

While the small space seems confining to most people, Fabien and the team did leave the vessel quite often to explore the marine life and collect data. These dives provided researchers with a much closer look at what they were studying, and for a longer period of time. Fabien said about 10 scientific papers would be born from the mission and the visiting scientists said in a matter of days, they were able to collect years worth of data.

Image courtesy of Fabien Cousteau/Twitter