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Dull & Bathos

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Another Fish Story
Starship 19

The shellfish divers known in Japan as ama, or “women of the sea” never use scuba gear—wetsuits are now commonplace, but oxygen tanks are forbidden. This is not out of cultural nostalgia (supposedly having existed for two millennia, ama are part of Japan’s folklore) but to prevent mass harvesting of the ecosystem. It takes about two years before a diver obtains the expertise and lung capacity to pry abalone off ocean rocks, underwater, of course, without damaging the shell—the market wants unblemished, live product. The more difficult and elusive part of the job is to learn the ways of the ocean: where to best dive, and when. Nevertheless, there is no formal training involved. Anyone (of any gender actually, although the majority of divers are women), so long as they are a resident of the area and are willing to give a percentage of their earnings to the diving cooperative, can become an ama, but the only way to learn is by hanging around, which is to say not by observing a diver who already knows what they are doing, because first, it is next to impossible to demonstrate the technique to an observer while underwater, and second, no one would take the time to do so, because every diver is an individual proprietor and in competition with every other diver. ...

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Dull & Bathos is written by Jay Chung.