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Washington, D.C.March 7, 2025
Featured photograph by Jenny Adler
In coastal Japan, a community of predominantly women fishers has practiced an ancient method of freediving for more than two millennia. Forgoing the aid of advanced gear or scuba equipment, these women plunge from the ocean surface to rock-covered seabeds and kelp forest floors — all on a single breath. At the bottom, they use simple tools to harvest kelp, sazae turban shells and abalone. Called ama divers or 海女 (literally “sea women” in Japanese), they maintain a cultural tradition that is hanging in the balance.
National Geographic Explorer Jenny Adler spent a month in 2023 with fellow Explorer Kyle McBurnie documenting the ama divers in Mie Prefecture, Japan. As an underwater photojournalist wielding a doctorate in marine ecology, Adler lets her scientific background and interests guide her work, and hopes to communicate powerful yet accessible messages about science and conservation through her images. She feels uniquely drawn towards stories that explore the relationship between people and water in a changing climate.
Three ama dive in Wagu, an area that has been hit hard by isoyake. Their catch is only a fraction of what it used to be. Mayumi Mitsuhashi (black wetsuit with no shirt over it), Hideko Shiroyama (grey shirt over her wetsuit), and Masumi Shibahara (white shirt over her wetsuit).
Photograph by Jenny Adler
For her project, titled “Iso Nageki, The Elegy of the Sea,” Adler set out to photograph not only ama divers’ remarkable jobs but also to shed light on how their way of life is changing rapidly due to warming seas.
“Japanese ama are some of the only fishers who are physically immersed in the ocean — these women have observed climate change in the water, where they have been freediving for abalone and other marine organisms for more than 2,000 years. Existing media coverage focuses on the ‘last remaining mermaids of Japan’ and how the next generation of ama are moving to cities for more conventional office jobs. Yet, this coverage overlooks the important impacts of climate change on this disappearing cultural tradition, as well as these female freedivers’ crucial, firsthand knowledge of rapidly changing ocean ecosystems.”
At the heart of the ama freediving tradition lies healthy kelp forests. Japan’s coast is home to 38 species of kelp, and these important underwater forest ecosystems serve as both habitat and food source for the many marine organisms that ama divers seek, including abalone, the ama’s most valuable quarry.
Masumi san harvests a sea urchin in Wagu.
Photograph by Jenny Adler
However, average sea surface temperatures around Japan have risen twice as quickly as oceans worldwide, and kelp forest ecosystems have suffered profound declines. In Japan, this kelp loss is called isoyake, or “barren ground phenomenon.”
As kelp and other seaweeds disappear due to warming waters and urchin barrens, the ama return from each day’s dive with less and less. They are hit particularly hard in the abalone catch. Abalone feed mostly on kelp; in areas deprived of that primary food source, landing the prized shellfish has become especially rare.
With abalone and other marine life becoming harder to find, the number of ama has similarly dwindled. In Mie Prefecture, that number has dropped sharply from more than 3,600 in 1978 to just 660 in 2017.
To more intimately understand the ama’s work, Adler and her team chose to freedive alongside the women rather than scuba dive. “It was a point of connection,” Adler says. “Once they saw that we were also holding our breath with them, they accepted us and trusted us more.”
Developing these close connections with ama divers both on land and in the ocean, Adler learned about their complex, shifting relationship with the sea. In Wagu, a small fishing village hit hard by isoyake, the ama only went diving 11 days in the past year and don’t catch abalone anymore. Masumi san, the youngest ama in Wagu, is currently in her 40s, and she will likely be the last one.
Freediving for abalone with ama Aiko Ohno in the kelp off Toshijima. The kelp is in the genus Ecklonia/Eisenia.
Photograph by Jenny Adler
Just a short drive up the coast in the city of Toba, however, kelp and abalone are still abundant. Here, ama divers are still able to sustain a relatively steady living despite the historically low numbers. Aiko Ono, also in her 40s and originally from Tokyo, moved to Toba specifically to become an ama as part of a government training program. There, the local ama welcomed her into the fold; traditionally the trade is passed from mother to daughter.
Despite varying future outlooks between towns, there nonetheless remains a fierce determination to continue diving as the ama maintain strong ties to the sea. Their sheer joy at being in the water outweighs barriers like age or finances: The average ama is between 65 to 70 years old. Many work jobs on the side in order to keep diving.
Ama Suzumi Kitai and Mayumi Mitsuhashi dive off Oshima.
Photograph by Jenny Adler
“[Ama are] an inspiring example of the power of local conservation action and indigenous knowledge in the face of climate change,” Adler shares. “Stories from these women who spend their lives in the sea are critical to the climate change narrative and can help others understand both the ecological and associated cultural losses we may endure on a warming planet.”
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Melissa Zhu is a Content Strategy Coordinator for the National Geographic Society with a love for language's ability to articulate the fullness of human experience. When she's not focused on advancing the nonprofit mission of the Society, you might find her immersed in a good book.
About The National Geographic Society
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