Bajau Laut Tribe Adaptation
Although the bajau do not dive to these depths or for this length of time during their day to day fishing they spend up to 60 percent of their working life underwater.
Bajau laut tribe adaptation. The bajau laut have traditionally lived a nomadic life on houseboats exploiting the rich resources of the coral reefs and mangrove forests of the region. Or are known by the exonym bajau ˈ b ɑː dʒ aʊ ˈ b æ also spelled badjao bajaw badjau badjaw bajo or bayao. The bajau laut a sea faring hunter gatherer tribe with a 1 000 plus year history in the southeast asian islands are known for their remarkable free diving ability. The deepest dive recorded by the free diving bajau laut people of southeast asia was to an impressive 79 metres 259 feet and the longest time spent underwater by them was just over three minutes.
The bajau laut have been sea nomads for centuries. In the summer of 2015 melissa ilardo got to see how good they are firsthand. In fact you can find records of the bajau laut that date all the way back to the 16th century when a man named antonio pigafetta took part in an ambitious project. She remembers diving with pai.
The bajau people of southeast asia are among the most accomplished divers in the world. In the waters they call home around the philippines malaysia and indonesia they dive to incredible depths for pearls and for food living off. Sea nomads are first known humans genetically adapted to diving for hundreds of years the bajau have lived at sea and natural selection may have made them genetically stronger divers. The tribe is also known as sea nomads or sea gypsies.
The sama bajau refers to several austronesian ethnic groups of maritime southeast asia with their origins from the southern philippines the name collectively refers to related people who usually call themselves the sama or samah formally a a sama sama people. Tribes such as the bajau laut are somewhat of a case in point as the sea nomads have been roaming around southeast asia for hundreds of years. The bajau are a very special tribe that living along the coast of indonesia the philippines and malaysia. The deepest dive recorded by the free diving bajau laut people of southeast asia was to an impressive 79 metres and the longest time spent underwater by them was just over three minutes.
The largest group of these sea nomads are the bajau.