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Deep sea hunter fishes underwater for five minutes - on one breath
Deep sea hunting is something you have to see to believe - in the video above, an Indonesian hunter swims to a depth of 65 feet, and stays there for just under three minutes. Other dives can send them underwater for up to five minutes. Armed with nothing more than his trunks, a pair of goggles and a spear gun, this hunter scours the seabed for his catch - staying underwater as long as it takes to catch what he needs.
At this depth, Indonesian sea bed hunter Sulbin has an immense amount of pressure above him. Sulbin is a Bajau fisher - a member of an ever decreasing tribe of sea nomads that spend their entire life out at sea. Bajau are born at sea, will live at sea, and will die at sea.
These sea gypsies live in Malaysia and Indonesia. They live on houseboats or in stilt houses off the shores. So much of their time is spent in the water, they often feel landsick when they are on dry land.
Because of the pressure from diving, these divers will intentionally rupture their eardrums at an early age - which essentially makes them partially deaf, a high price to pay for ensuring a good catch. The deep dives even change their eye muscles increasing their underwater eyesight.
The catch varies from area to area - some dive for food, others are after pearls or sea cucumbers. To make their job productive, many of these divers will have to make hundreds of dives a year.
The clip is part of the BBC/Discovery produced "Human Planet". To learn more about the show, and the challenges involved with creating this amazing footage, check out the Human Planet blog.
The catch varies from area to area - some dive for food, others are after pearls or sea cucumbers. To make their job productive, many of these divers will have to make hundreds of dives a year.
The clip is part of the BBC/Discovery produced "Human Planet". To learn more about the show, and the challenges involved with creating this amazing footage, check out the Human Planet blog.
| No way - I feel the pain at the bottom of a kiddie pool! | |
|---|---|
| Yes - I'd like to at least *try* it |
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
T Jan 25th 2011 8:10PM
jesus christ BBC...........hook this guy up w/ some scuba gear and lessons
Steve Moriconi Jan 26th 2011 9:53AM
Well, aside from him destroying thousands of years of coral with a single step and the un-mentioned high risk of decompression sickness I am sure in this population, this would be amazing. This is just another example of the extremes humans will go to survive at any cost to themselves or the environment.
Bobby Jan 26th 2011 10:29AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQITWbAaDx0
Check out Guillaume Nery base jumping at Dean's Blue Hole. Far more impressive than 65 feet and two minutes. The fisherman is good...but Guillaume is a world record holder.
sam Jan 26th 2011 10:24AM
@Steve... you don't get decompression sickness UNLESS you are breathing in compressed air. This guy is freediving (no compressed air source just the air he has in his lungs) so he'll never get the bends. And its quite a feat to stay under for five minutes. Most people fail at one minute, those of us who are accomplished swimmers are doing real well holding our breath for 2-3 minutes. Free diving record setters usually max out at 5 minutes.
James Jan 26th 2011 2:11PM
The bubbles from SCUBA scare the fish. This is a delicate art, not shooting fish in a barrel.
andy Jan 26th 2011 6:40AM
The thing I don't like about this is how they touch all the live coral reef below the sea with their feet. I'm sure this is destructive to the plants below the water depths.
panhermes Jan 25th 2011 8:18PM
Ah come on--what a great bunch of wuses, (sic). Would you not even want to try? Well at my advanced time of life I don't know whether I am still able, however, I used to dive daily to the sea floor, no snorkel, no eye protection and I could remain under seemingly forever drawing air (?) from the turbulence it seemed. People that live on oceans, depending on it for their subsistence, can do what land dwellers think extraordinary. While I could, way back then, remain under for hours, (oopsie, not hours) over a minute or perhaps on good days even two. The young man in the clip poses a challenge-28.3% would want to try it. Happy safe diving...
Kevin Jan 25th 2011 8:28PM
Funny these poor people never heard of a fishing pole.
Bill Jan 25th 2011 8:30PM
That little fish wasn't worth it though.
Sarah Jan 25th 2011 10:25PM
I agree. I was expecting him to get some sort of large fish....I don't know what, just bigger than that tiny thing. I've caught bigger fish than that in a creek.
Although, you gotta admit, it had to be fun. And that guy has some impressive lung power.
Fisherman Fred Jan 25th 2011 8:37PM
Thats what we call them there skinny boppers. One time I be out there fishen and caught one of them there skinny dudes on my pole and he had a fish on his pole. It be happenen all the time nowadays with that there ekonomy as it is nowas days.
ben parker Jan 25th 2011 8:37PM
Interesting story. This is how evolution takes place. If these people were to thrive , prosper, and reproduce, over time their progeny would become more and more adaptive and proficient at hunting underwater than those less so, particularly if the environment on land became less hospitable. I would dare say, within a few generations, their lung capacity would quadruple, vision would become more acute, and perhaps even webbed feet would develop. We came from the sea, perhaps some are destined to return.
ghag17 Jan 25th 2011 11:09PM
people like this have been living this way for a long time already, they didn't just start doing this. and also your theory relies heavily on lamarcks theory of evolution. it has been proven time and time again, that we do not change based on our needs, and acquired traits are not passed on to our descendants. the only way a new race of people exceptionally good at fishing this way would have had to have started out with a genetic mutation they are born with, and there would have to be two of them in order to reproduce and pass on the trait.
Bleu Lorax Jan 26th 2011 12:05AM
Ben - Please disregard GHAG17's comment. Nothing has been scientifically proven that he/she claims. However, the possiblity of your theory is not only much more realistic, it is also more interesting. Humans do adapt to their environment and that is evinced in people from regions near the Equator, as they have darker skin. There are many other instances of this in humans, but too numerous to mention here.
Fred Truck Jan 26th 2011 2:14AM
No, it is true that it would take much longer than a few generations for something like that to happen. A trait must exist within a population to be passed on to progeny. Such traits could appear through mutations, but this would be on a random basis. Bad traits such as decreased lung capacity (like genetic diseases) would be less likely to be passed on due to the possibility of leading to death before reproduction. Good traits like webbed feet could develop, and would probably be passed down and allowed to remain in the gene pool. Unfortunately it says that the population of these people is decreasing, so this will probably not happen noticeably.
antipas Jan 26th 2011 3:05AM
You sound like a moron, and your "education" accentuates this in an incredible manner...I "dare say" that you and anyone who would actually agree with your comment had better not go diving anytime soon as the rocks you have for brains will render you helpless to reach the water's surface once you sink to the bottom.
pnut166 Jan 26th 2011 4:47AM
Unfortunately, perhaps, evolution doesn`t apply to humans. The basis of evolution is that the weak / disadvantaged die early, while the strong survive and reproduce. As we know, that doesn`t apply to our species anymore. In fact, it seems that the weak (brained) are procreating more than the (mentally) strong or otherwise "advanced" segments of the world population. So, if anything, we are devolving.
nazihunter Jan 26th 2011 4:50AM
These sea dwelling people have already been there for hundreds if not thousands of years, they have yet to grow webbed feet and never will. Evolution is a theory, it is not fact. This absurd theory comes from a man that married his cousin, believed in eugenics, and gave no thought to God. This man was a drug addict and lunitic, but people run with his theories as if they were the gospel. SMH
JRC Jan 25th 2011 8:52PM
Wow! That is really cool, and even cooler that they're are people out there who spend their whole life at sea!
Steve Jan 26th 2011 6:58AM
JRC,
If you would like your comments to be given serious consideration you should always make an attempt to use correct grammar and vocabulary. Do you know that THEY'RE is a contraction of the words THEY and ARE? Did you re-read what you had typed before clicking on ADD COMMENT? I do congratulate you, though for your proper use of the words THERE and THEIR. I am so tired of reading people's comments that have poor spelling and bad grammer. What has become of education in our country?