Ama

Ama divers (Japanese: 海 士(for Men) / 海 女(for Women)) are Japanese female divers famous for diving for pearls. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1250x828, 391 KB) Ama (pearl diver) in Japan. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1250x828, 391 KB) Ama (pearl diver) in Japan. ... Diving has several meanings:- Jumping or falling deliberately, often acrobatically, into water. ... Japanese pearl diver A pearl is a hard, rounded object produced by certain mollusks, primarily oysters. ...

The word ama literally means "sea woman". Japanese tradition holds that the practice of Ama divers may be 2000 years old. Traditionally, and even as recently as the 1960s, Ama dived wearing only a loincloth. Even in modern times, Ama dive without scuba gear or air tanks, making them a traditional sort of free-diver. Depending on the region, ama may dive with masks, fins and torso-covering wetsuits at the most. Only divers who work for tourist attractions use white, partially transparent suits. The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... SCUBA is an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. ... Freedive photographer Free-diving is an aquatic sport, considered an extreme sport, in which divers attempt to reach great depths unassisted by breathing apparatus. ... Masks in a Guatemalan Market A teenager reading a book, while wearing a dinosaur mask A mask is a piece of material or kit worn on the face. ... A fin is a surface used to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media. ... Two divers, one wearing a 1 atmosphere diving suit and the other standard diving dress, preparing to explore the wreck of the RMS Lusitania, 1935. ...

Ama are famous for pearl diving but originally they dived for food like seaweed, shellfish, lobsters, octopus and sea urchins - and oysters which sometimes have pearls. Pearl hunting refers to a now largely obsolete method of retreiving pearls from oysters. ... Seaweed covered rocks in the UK Phycologists consider seaweed to refer any of a large number of marine benthic algae that are multicellular, macrothallic (large-bodied), and thus differentiated from most algae that tend towards microscopic size (Smith, 1944). ... Shellfish is a term used to describe molluscs and crustaceans used as food. ... Subfamilies and Genera Neophoberinae Acanthacaris Thymopinae Nephropsis Nephropides Thymops Thymopsis Nephropinae Homarus Nephrops Homarinus Metanephrops Eunephrops Thymopides Clawed lobsters comprise a family (Nephropidae, sometimes also Homaridae) of large marine crustaceans. ... Families 14 in two suborders, see text. ... Subclasses Euechinoidea Superorder Atelostomata Order Cassiduloida Order Spatangoida (heart urchins) Superorder Diadematacea Order Diadematoida Order Echinothurioida Order Pedinoida Superorder Echinacea Order Arbacioida Order Echinoida Order Phymosomatoida Order Salenioida Order Temnopleuroida Superorder Gnathostomata Order Clypeasteroida (sand dollars) Order Holectypoida Perischoechinoidea Order Cidaroida (pencil urchins) Slate pencil urchin (cidaroid) Group of black... The name oyster is used for a number of different groups of molluscs which grow for the most part in marine or brackish water. ...

Ama divers can keep diving well into old age. Usually they also have another job, typically working on a farm.