AFP通信のインスタグラム(afpphoto) - 11月23日 19時04分
AFP Photo ? @marteauburin - Japan's 'ama' grannies cling to their freediving fishing tradition -
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A group of Japanese grannies emerges from a boat returning to shore. Clad in black wetsuits and bubbling with energy, they are part of a dwindling community of "ama" -- freediving fisherwomen.
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"I really feel like I am a mermaid among the fish, it's a fantastic sensation," says a beaming Hideko Koguchi, who works as an ama in the coastal town of Toba.
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Dressed in her full ama outfit -- a mask that covers her eyes and nose, flippers and a black wetsuit that replaced a white version worn until the 1960s -- Koguchi sheds the weight of her years. She has been an ama for three decades, and says proudly that she hopes to be diving "for another 20 years".
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During the diving season, which lasts for 10 months a year, the local fishing association scrutinises weather forecasts and information on marine stocks each day, before issuing a call for the women from loudspeakers.
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Each ama -- which means "woman of the sea" -- has only rudimentary equipment: a buoyant ring to signal her presence at the surface while she dives, and a net to hold her haul.
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Out at sea, the women set up their rings and then dip beneath the surface, sometimes holding their breath for more than a minute. They tirelessly resurface and dive over and over, dozens of times a session.
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Only 2,000 ama are left across Japan, down from more than 12,000 in the 1930s, according to records kept by a marine museum in Toba.
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