Fabien Cousteau will attempt to break his grandfather Jacques Cousteau's record for longest time spent underwater. The younger Cousteau plans to spend 31 days submerged with a team of marine scientists.
The BBC reports that he will be put up in the Aquarius Reef Base, a small laboratory located near the Florida Keys that lies 18 metres under the ocean. He, along with a five person crew, plan to spend the time conducting experiments related to climate change, marine pollution, and the effects of their environment on the human body.
The lab is the last of its kind in the world, and has been used by astronauts to simulate the confinement of a space station.
The expedition, dubbed 'Mission 31', is also an homage to a similar feat by legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau in 1963, when he and his team stayed in the Red Sea's Conshelf II base for 30 days. Cousteau senior believed that overpopulation would eventually force humans to live below the sea, and sought to prove that this would be possible.
The expedition's web page says: "Mission 31 will commence to honor [Jacques] Cousteau’s original experiment by going deeper, longer and further."
