Record divers pushing human limits and reshaping scientists' view of our species

8 Bluestein 2 7/26/2025, 12:15:06 PM bbc.com ↗

Comments (2)

bix6 · 16h ago
Beautiful article. The ocean is so special.
fuzzfactor · 14h ago
>species which "are specialised to shallow diving",

>This is where humans fit in, she says, alongside otters, beavers and hippos.

>Humans can repeatedly dive to 20m (65ft) and spend as much as 60% of the time submerged – much like other species in the shallow diving group.

>The Bajau aim to be on the seafloor for as much time as possible in one day in order to collect as much as they can, says Schagatay, who has been studying this ethnic group for almost 40 years.

>"The trick is to rest for as short a time as possible at the surface before the next dive."

Before they had hi-rise condos in South Florida there was a traditional culture where natives had done this like forever and tourists would often join in. Way over 60 years ago, perhaps now more than ever when lobster season comes ;)

With SCUBA it's best to only breathe one tank, or two tanks at the most per day, and each tank only lasts less than an hour, closer to a half hour usually. And it can leave you feeling more exhausted than free-diving for the same period of time.

If you just go up and down all day snorkeling you could spend more time down there and catch more lobsters than you could burning through one or two tanks of air.

http://floridalobstering.com/lobster-nets/

>Take the "sea-nomad" children of Thailand who developed built-in goggles – eyes that can see clearly underwater like dolphins. Researchers found this extraordinary characteristic was developed through training and was "replicable in a European cohort".

A diving mask is hard to beat for visibility, but for this purpose it is not really needed and it can get your face sore after a couple hours. I wouldn't say clarity was comparable but I definitely could see better after a few years of going without the mask than I could at first. Your eyeballs must "look forward" to hitting the clean salt water every time. Then it's no snorkel either and only fins FTW.

https://floridalobsternets.com/watch-in-action/