A man of Maltese descent has officially broken the Guinness World Record of the longest scuba dive in cold seawater.

Holder of two national records, 37-year-old Sean McGahern had entered the bone-chilling water at Starfish Diving School, St George’s Bay, on March 3 at 11.45 p.m.

He emerged out of the 14°C water 12 hours and 34 minutes later, breaking the world record that stood at 11 hours and 46 minutes.

But the diver had to wait some three months to obtain official recognition of his record-breaking accomplishment.

He finally received the certificate, before setting off for the Arctic Circle where he spends summer delivering fish-farm salmon to traders and sellers.

To beat the record, the water temperature had to be below 15°C and the diver whiled away the hours at a minimum depth of 11 metres.

To occupy himself, Mr McGahern cleaned the seabed with his team of 16 safety divers.

But Mr McGahern did not just earn a place in Guinness World Records – he also gained a fiancée after writing a marriage proposal to his girlfriend of five months, Mikaela Papagiorcopulo, on an underwater slate.

Born in England, raised in Ireland and a resident in Malta for 17 years, Mr McGahern had also held the longest open salt water scuba dive in warm water record.

In 2009 he managed to stay underwater for more than 25 hours, but the record was broken the following year, when Will Goodwin dived for 48 hours in Taiwan.

Mr McGahern came close in 2011 with a 36-hour dive, but he is planning on breaking the record in September of next year.