The Hae-Nyo of Korea and the Ama of Japan
by Rik Rösken
The ama's where first known after publication of an article about their work by Teruaka in 1932.
There was few interest in the divers and their fysiology under pressure, until that specific
publication.
In Korea the hard work is mostly done by women, called the Hae-Nyo. In Japan, where the
majority of the divers exist of men, the well known word Ama is used. With these breath-hold
divers two techniques are used. The first is diving without any aids, called cachido, the
other technique is known as funado and makes use of a weight.
The cachido dives from a drifting platform to depths between two and ten meters. The divers
takes a couple of deep breaths, dives to the desired depth and stays 15 seconds at the bottom
to collect shellfish. The whole dive last 30 seconds and after another 30 seconds of rest, she
makes her next dive. This dive pattern last for about two hours a day.
The funado dives of a boat past twenty meters depth. A weight of 15 kilo's is used to pull the
diver down to the desired depth. The whole dive last for one minute and the diver stays for
about 30 seconds at the bottom. The diver, and the weight is pulled up to the surface at the
end of the dive by an assistant. Although this dive pattern is more economical as the dives of
the Cachido, the same amount of harvesting can be done for a longer period, the advantage is
compensated by the need of an assistant.
Through the various centuries that the divers are active, their diving pattern and methods
didn't change at all. From 1930, new inventions where used, like diving goggles, fins, and
dive suits. Each invention had some influence on the productivity of the diver, but there
wasn't any change in the used techniques.
Currently, there are about 29000 divers active in Korea and Japan.
Source:
G. Ferretti, Mario Costa, Diversity in and adaptation to breath-hold diving in humans, Comparative
Biochemistry and Physiology Part A 136 (2003) 205-213
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