June 14, 2025 • 20 mins
DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational and documentary purposes only. It contains material that may be disturbing or offensive to some viewers, but is presented in a truthful and non-exploitative manner. The opinions expressed in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of the creator or YouTube. The people interviewed in the video do NOT represent either the creator or YouTube.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
These are the Bajau sea nomads. They've lived in the
ocean for hundreds of years and have evolved to have
fifty percent larger spleens than regular people, allowing them to
reportedly hold their breath underwater from up to ten minutes
and swim to depths of up to two hundred feet.
But why would anyone want to live in the middle
of the ocean, vulnerable to the dangers of choppy water,
(00:21):
lethal storms, and without access to healthcare, job opportunities, and
formal education. Well, the majority of these people lack citizenship
or have been evicted from their homes elsewhere, and don't
have any of the rights or protections of legal citizens
in the countries that legally control the waters that they
live in and here in Waktobi they're often treated as
second class citizens by their Indonesian counterparts on the land
(00:44):
and are viewed as lowly sea scavengers. How long can
he hold his breath underwater? Four minutes like a fish?
And In two thousand and two, Waktobi National Park was
established in and around the Bajau people's pre existing village,
threatening their way of life by restricting the Bajow's ability
to fish in their traditional fishing grounds. As ancient techniques
(01:05):
in fishing practice are lost generation by generation, the Bajo
people have turned to more environmentally destructive fishing methods like
dynamite fishing and potassium cyanide poisoning, threatening the environment's coral
reef and increasing the tension between the Bajau people and
the Indonesian government here in Wakatobi. So how is this
floating village holding up today and how has the outside
(01:26):
world affected them for better and for worse. After finding
a Bajow native named Albaro was born and raised in
the floating village, he agreed to take me to his
home and help me understand the Bajow's way of life
and their current situation. We're in the middle of the ocean.
This is extremely remote. It took us several days to
get out here. We're in the middle of nowhere. Hello,
(01:46):
I want to hop up here. He get to meet
some people. Sorry, improv hotel for the night. Very nice. Yes,
So we're staying in his house back there, very hospitable. Now,
before we go diving with some of these legendary divers,
I want to get a full tour of the village
and see what's going on here. Twelve hundred people out
here is quite a bit given what it is. How
do they build the town? It's a secret. Okay, it's
(02:10):
a secret. How they build the town and expend it.
You can use your imagination of some guitarists. How long
can you hold his breath underwater? Hiii? Okay?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Can we bring him to the water tomorrow and test
his skills? We want to see if we can find
the person with the most breath on this village. Would
you be interested eying? What time worse for you? Good morning? Tomorrow? Okay, okay,
tomorrow morning. As I gathered as many divers as I
could for an informal dive competition between the village, I
(02:46):
wanted to understand how people lived on top of the
ocean twenty four to seven got the things they needed
to survive without ever having to leave. Looks like we
have a bit of a shop right here. Some people
doing laundry over there. What do you do out here?
Yeses Melin. What are the responsibilities of a baj mother?
How big is your family? Is life easy or hard?
(03:09):
Out here? The most men fish carpentry. What is the
most common job? And we have the squid right here,
there were cooking. This will be lunch, dinner, breakfast right here?
This is good stuff. What do the Bajo women do here?
What are their responsibilities? Bananas? Is life easy or difficult here?
(03:43):
And how big is your family? Okay? Right now I'm
getting an informal house tour. Okay, we come inside. Thank
you for having us beautiful living room? Hello? And these
are your kids? Now? Hello? Whoa? And then your beautiful
outside view? Oh? Toilet right here? And in this house
(04:07):
I stayed at. The bathroom is just a hole that
goes straight into the ocean. A different world completely we're
walking through right now. This entire place is wild, and
the kids here still love playing soccer. But if the
ball falls in the water, you jump in, grab the
ball and hope your neighbor didn't just take a dump.
And just like the rest of Indonesia, most of the
men here smoke like dogs. Have you lived here your
(04:30):
entire life? Were there more fish when you were a child?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Bottom?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Aye? When were the roads built to connect all the houses? Okay?
You sed to have to swim from house to house
before the government put these roads in. How deep could
he dive? Wow? What is the technique you use to
(05:02):
catch fish, spearfishing, net fishing, big ship explosives, Dennis miss
net fishing. Okay, do you know who Donald Trump is? Okay,
pretty refreshing. Actually, do you know who mister beast is?
Do you know Michael Jackson?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
He's got me bye bye bye?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Hello? Hello? Ye okay, so he's cutting the iron for
the fishing weights. How did you learn how to do this?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Well done?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
And I went to I think he make it by.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So okay, it's ready. We'll tell them we'll come back.
We'll come back. Okay, it started flash flood real quick,
we're all flooding to come out. What do they do
when big storms come? Do they go to Big Island?
They going win the win today? Okay, t wait for
(06:05):
it to pass. What are some of the traditions of
the Bajo people? Just appeciate and swimming? Okay, and it
roll and roll. Storm has passed, wisdom has been gained.
H This town is actually pretty huge. Didn't expect it
to be this big. You can take a look at
these steps of walking across right now. A lot of
(06:27):
ground to cover right now. But real quick, do you
make videos but don't have enough time or money? To
make shorts or clips to help promote them with every
big streamer and YouTuber using reels, TikTok shorts and clips
to get discovered. With opis ai, you can create high
quality shorts without editing in minutes using the power of AI.
You just copy the link of the video. Let's take
(06:47):
this one about Ceno mats. Search Opus dot pro and
paste the link and you can use Opus's clip anything
feature to search for any specific moment or theme and
it'll automatically clip all those moments. Just let Opus work
it's magic and boom a couple minutes later. I have
ten different clips, But the question is how good is
their AI at editing and do these videos get views?
(07:09):
I want you to try out for yourself. Make it
short using Opus dot pro. Put YouTube Tyler Olivera in
the description tag at Tyler Olivera, upload the short and
I'm gonna send one thousand dollars to whoever's short or
TikTok has the most views by the end of the week.
Thanks Opus, wrapping me at my shorts and market my videos.
Back to the floating village, we have a mega market
(07:31):
right here. This is the supermarket out here. They have diapers.
Right here, they have all sorts of snacks, all sorts
of sugars. They got sprite and Coca cola. Okay, what
is your name, Ranney? Is this your store? Yeah? Okay,
very beautiful? Did you start this business yourself? A neighbor?
Tam Louder?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
This is so they bunked it from a businessman.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Big business brand. Do you have a family out here?
Are these your kids? Yeah? Do you want your kids
to move to a big city or to stay here forever?
You want the mirror? Okay, to run the shop? Oh,
we are all sorts of good stuff right here. The
adventure doesn't end out here. We've probably met nearly eighty
percent of the village out here right now. Hello, yoh,
(08:18):
this is a tough spawn for this guy. Okay, not
the friendliest parrot. Is that your duck? Quark quark quarkqwork. Oh,
this is beautiful. Kids in the States don't do this.
Look at them fighting with the duck. You got a fish?
Oh dang, beat its head and killed it. Oh, very
generous of you. Whoa Yes, good job. That was funny.
(08:44):
And just like the majority of Indonesia, most of the
people here are Muslim and there's a large mosque in
the center of town. Many of the women covered in
he jobs despite spending most of their days in the water,
doing things like cleaning this boat salam alice, salam, looks
like it may have been damn which by some sort
of storm or hurricane. Their prayer matts inside everything in
(09:04):
here needed to be a good Muslim? What do you
do for a living out here? What's the craziest story?
He has? While being a fisherman?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
A few times so he got safe shaking?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Ask him if bag people can swim much better than
other people? Salmon, they're the best. Okay? How long can
he hold his breath underwater? Young for four minutes? Has
the fishing gotten more difficult out here compared to when
he was a boy? Is it more difficult to fish now?
(09:42):
It's difficult right now? Ask him? Why is it difficult
so many? Because so many people? Have you heard that's
coming from outside from.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
The big island about so many people? So many came
in here.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And too many people do dynamite fishing or the potassium
chloride stuff? Is that common or somewhat rare? People? Is
a bone by many people. While most of the houses
are now connected by makeshift bridges or wooden planks. Some
(10:15):
houses like this one stand alone in the water, only
accessible via boat or by swimming. Right here's Louda's house.
It is only accessible via boat because the bridge is broken. Louda,
I like your house. This is Louda and his brother.
Rumor has it they're some of the best divers here.
But before we see them dive and hunt underwater like fish,
(10:37):
I'm curious how long the village can hold their breath underwater.
For the most part, these guys are underwater for as
long as they need to be. This is a hunting skill,
not showmanship. We want to see what their maximum breath
capacity is.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Basically, a splint can hold fresh auctionated blood, and the
larger spleen is the more fresh auctionated blood that organ
can hold, which technically extends your body's ability to stand
the water longer.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So it's said that.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
In certain families the spleen is three times larger than
average humans.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
We don't have the ability to run an MRI or
an X ray on these guys, so we're gonna test
them in the water right now. I told everyone here,
if they can hold their breath for two minutes. He'll
give him one hundred and fifty thousand rupees. We just
want to incentivize them to see if they can just
stay there, hold their breath, obviously without hurting themselves. All right,
we're gonna have a weighted vest around the individual so
they could just sit there and hold their breath, but
not too heavy obviously to drown them. Okay, he's putting
(11:25):
on the weighted best. He'll be our first diver. Let's
see how long he can hold it. They are ready
for the diving competition. He's under Okay, the time runs
the gun thirty one, not that impressive. He's under twenty
(11:49):
five seconds. That's very not very much. He's under thirty eight.
I'm gonna guess the chain smoking out here is probably
not helping their dive times in lung capacity, but I
could be wrong. Okay, now we have the head boss
Laudas brother what's your name? These two siblings did the
(12:26):
best thus far. But what the Bajau people don't have
in lung capacity, they do have in diving and spear
fishing skills. Okay, Undu, how long have you been diving?
Not how much? How many minutes can you hold your
breath underwater?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
How deep can you go underwater? How do you like
living here in the village atop the water in a
couple of years, do you ever see yourself moving out
of the village and going to a bigger city or
will you live here forever? Givin your Undu's older brother, Yeah, okay?
(13:03):
How deep can you dive underwater? Do you how long
can you hold your breath underwater?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Did play the minim like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Okay, let's do this and Kevin are going to jump
in and do what they typically do underwater dive spearfish,
hold their breath, utilize their Bajaw skills. It like that.
Are the people as good at diving as they once were?
Or is it kind of a dying tradition?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
The budget people have a skill, like they said traditional
just a google not a mask like this and they.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Make it their purposing. By ah, fifty sixty years ago,
like your father's time or your father's father, were there
many more divers than there are now? No now more now?
If not a fish, what it's bad? They catch? Okay, wow,
(14:01):
that was quick. But the skills shown by some of
the more middle aged dudes here in diving and spearfishing
was so impressive that it looked like it was second
nature to them. Okay, that's two fish already in less
than five six minutes. Amazing, good job, very quick, good one,
good job. Wow you got another one, three down already.
Oh he's amazing. Let's see the fish. What is it called? No, no, no,
(14:26):
can we eat it tonight? Yeah? Okay? Undas catching fish
left and right, so many fish, so quickly, very good.
What is that fish's name? A la las a la lash? Smooth? Yeah, smooth?
(14:50):
But oh oh hold horn straight through him. Excuse your beasts?
Is it tough to catch up with them? Oh? Man,
dead especially, can just get down there. He's got his
traditional goggles, which are cool. Yeah they don't. They don't
suction cup.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
They're made of wood and glass and they literally just
it is the pressure of going down deep that holds.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Him against your face. Whoa pretty awesome. Makes it look
a little too easy. These guys are small though. A
lot of us has fished out and uh so, but
you get quantity, you still eat. So we're seeing the
effects of overfishing out here, I think. So, how are
you able to dive so well while you smoke one
packet day. While spearfishing is certainly one way to catch
(15:31):
a bunch of fish, those who are often more desperate
and less talented at diving have been driven to more
high risk, high reward methods. Dynamite fishing is an extremely
dangerous yet effective technique where the user throws a homemade
bomb into the ocean that explodes and creates a shockwave
in the water that kills countless fish instantly. Have you
ever almost blown yourself up while dynamite fishing? Do you
(15:55):
know anyone who has blown themselves or part of their
bodies up doing dynamite fishing for.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Money?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You have the money to.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Get money and then heyes, now that it is dangerous,
that's why what we waiting to do, he said.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Despite the risk of being arrested or blowing yourself up,
the potential reward of a big fishing hall caught quick
leaves the dynamite fishers like this guy building and throwing
bombs for living. And on top of blowing up the
reefs with bombs, Research shows at the Pajo fishermen's use
of potassium cyanide to stun and catch rare reef fish
that are then sold for high prices. To aquariums and
(16:32):
exotic seafood markets slows down the reef's ability to recover
even more than the dynamite fishing does. We found an
interview this guy who does it full time for living. Oh,
real quick, I'd be like going down the road, you
fucking If you want to support our boots on the ground,
independent journalism that is not bought and paid for by
corporate interests, along with exclusive DLC content that YouTube won't
(16:55):
let me upload and uncensored early access to all my
videos before they go off on YouTube, go subscribe at
patreon dot com slash Tyler Olivera for less than five
bucks a month. Why do you use the potassium cyanide
instead of spearfishing or net fishing? When you use the potassium?
(17:16):
How many fish do you end up killing? Are you
ever afraid the government will catch you?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Actually a pry to the government, but heidi haii and
when they come to catching, nothing improved, no proof, no proof.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. Does the government crack down on it or do
they not really care? How many fish do you catch
each time you throw dynamites in the water? What is
the punishment if they catch you? How many rupees does
(17:58):
he make you do you think you'll ever stop? Gotta
respect the game as destructive fishing practices, overfishing, coral bleaching
(18:20):
from rising sea temperatures contribute to the habitat loss of fish,
but jo fishermen claim that they have to go further
and dive deeper only to catch less fish, making the
life blood of their day to day existence increasingly at
risk as time goes on. I met up with the
oldest elder in the village, and ALBARTI here the village's
history and how it's changed since he's been alive. Okay, Albert,
(18:41):
what is this place to you? Did you grow up here? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Actually this is the main village. I always grow grow
up here by in nineteen uh.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Eighty, what do you remember as a boy?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
The houses separate, ea, charter walking path man me visit?
Did you in the neighbors streaming and then talking in
the y the under under house?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Okay? And how many people lived here when you were
a boy?
Speaker 6 (19:10):
When a boy here almost two hundred and now we
have how many, well thousand, three hundred people?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Okay, much bigger. Do you have to be a fisherman
to make money here?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, everyone fishes. What do you want the future to
look like. And what do you think it will look like? Man?
You got.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
The future. I think this here here just for the
be better here, I think. I think because they used
to seeing the types like.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Your fish, like your cano. It's easier now. Life is
easier now. Okay, did every kid have access to school here?
When you grew up and you swam to school Indio.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
School, me ma manna and Lukangamamamiana makura used to be easy.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And mamami and every But as the Bajau people are
forced to engage in increasingly dangerous and unsustainable fishing practices
to survive, the future of them and their village looks uncertain.
These are the Bajau sea nomads. They've lived in the
ocean for hundreds of years and have evolved to have
fifty percent larger spleens than regular people, allowing them to
reportedly hold their breath underwater from up to ten minutes
and swim to depths of up to two hundred feet.
But why would anyone want to live in the middle
of the ocean, vulnerable to the dangers of choppy water,
(00:21):
lethal storms, and without access to healthcare, job opportunities, and
formal education. Well, the majority of these people lack citizenship
or have been evicted from their homes elsewhere, and don't
have any of the rights or protections of legal citizens
in the countries that legally control the waters that they
live in and here in Waktobi they're often treated as
second class citizens by their Indonesian counterparts on the land
(00:44):
and are viewed as lowly sea scavengers. How long can
he hold his breath underwater? Four minutes like a fish?
And In two thousand and two, Waktobi National Park was
established in and around the Bajau people's pre existing village,
threatening their way of life by restricting the Bajow's ability
to fish in their traditional fishing grounds. As ancient techniques
(01:05):
in fishing practice are lost generation by generation, the Bajo
people have turned to more environmentally destructive fishing methods like
dynamite fishing and potassium cyanide poisoning, threatening the environment's coral
reef and increasing the tension between the Bajau people and
the Indonesian government here in Wakatobi. So how is this
floating village holding up today and how has the outside
(01:26):
world affected them for better and for worse. After finding
a Bajow native named Albaro was born and raised in
the floating village, he agreed to take me to his
home and help me understand the Bajow's way of life
and their current situation. We're in the middle of the ocean.
This is extremely remote. It took us several days to
get out here. We're in the middle of nowhere. Hello,
(01:46):
I want to hop up here. He get to meet
some people. Sorry, improv hotel for the night. Very nice. Yes,
So we're staying in his house back there, very hospitable. Now,
before we go diving with some of these legendary divers,
I want to get a full tour of the village
and see what's going on here. Twelve hundred people out
here is quite a bit given what it is. How
do they build the town? It's a secret. Okay, it's
(02:10):
a secret. How they build the town and expend it.
You can use your imagination of some guitarists. How long
can you hold his breath underwater? Hiii? Okay?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Can we bring him to the water tomorrow and test
his skills? We want to see if we can find
the person with the most breath on this village. Would
you be interested eying? What time worse for you? Good morning? Tomorrow? Okay, okay,
tomorrow morning. As I gathered as many divers as I
could for an informal dive competition between the village, I
(02:46):
wanted to understand how people lived on top of the
ocean twenty four to seven got the things they needed
to survive without ever having to leave. Looks like we
have a bit of a shop right here. Some people
doing laundry over there. What do you do out here?
Yeses Melin. What are the responsibilities of a baj mother?
How big is your family? Is life easy or hard?
(03:09):
Out here? The most men fish carpentry. What is the
most common job? And we have the squid right here,
there were cooking. This will be lunch, dinner, breakfast right here?
This is good stuff. What do the Bajo women do here?
What are their responsibilities? Bananas? Is life easy or difficult here?
(03:43):
And how big is your family? Okay? Right now I'm
getting an informal house tour. Okay, we come inside. Thank
you for having us beautiful living room? Hello? And these
are your kids? Now? Hello? Whoa? And then your beautiful
outside view? Oh? Toilet right here? And in this house
(04:07):
I stayed at. The bathroom is just a hole that
goes straight into the ocean. A different world completely we're
walking through right now. This entire place is wild, and
the kids here still love playing soccer. But if the
ball falls in the water, you jump in, grab the
ball and hope your neighbor didn't just take a dump.
And just like the rest of Indonesia, most of the
men here smoke like dogs. Have you lived here your
(04:30):
entire life? Were there more fish when you were a child?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Bottom?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Aye? When were the roads built to connect all the houses? Okay?
You sed to have to swim from house to house
before the government put these roads in. How deep could
he dive? Wow? What is the technique you use to
(05:02):
catch fish, spearfishing, net fishing, big ship explosives, Dennis miss
net fishing. Okay, do you know who Donald Trump is? Okay,
pretty refreshing. Actually, do you know who mister beast is?
Do you know Michael Jackson?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
He's got me bye bye bye?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Hello? Hello? Ye okay, so he's cutting the iron for
the fishing weights. How did you learn how to do this?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Well done?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
And I went to I think he make it by.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So okay, it's ready. We'll tell them we'll come back.
We'll come back. Okay, it started flash flood real quick,
we're all flooding to come out. What do they do
when big storms come? Do they go to Big Island?
They going win the win today? Okay, t wait for
(06:05):
it to pass. What are some of the traditions of
the Bajo people? Just appeciate and swimming? Okay, and it
roll and roll. Storm has passed, wisdom has been gained.
H This town is actually pretty huge. Didn't expect it
to be this big. You can take a look at
these steps of walking across right now. A lot of
(06:27):
ground to cover right now. But real quick, do you
make videos but don't have enough time or money? To
make shorts or clips to help promote them with every
big streamer and YouTuber using reels, TikTok shorts and clips
to get discovered. With opis ai, you can create high
quality shorts without editing in minutes using the power of AI.
You just copy the link of the video. Let's take
(06:47):
this one about Ceno mats. Search Opus dot pro and
paste the link and you can use Opus's clip anything
feature to search for any specific moment or theme and
it'll automatically clip all those moments. Just let Opus work
it's magic and boom a couple minutes later. I have
ten different clips, But the question is how good is
their AI at editing and do these videos get views?
(07:09):
I want you to try out for yourself. Make it
short using Opus dot pro. Put YouTube Tyler Olivera in
the description tag at Tyler Olivera, upload the short and
I'm gonna send one thousand dollars to whoever's short or
TikTok has the most views by the end of the week.
Thanks Opus, wrapping me at my shorts and market my videos.
Back to the floating village, we have a mega market
(07:31):
right here. This is the supermarket out here. They have diapers.
Right here, they have all sorts of snacks, all sorts
of sugars. They got sprite and Coca cola. Okay, what
is your name, Ranney? Is this your store? Yeah? Okay,
very beautiful? Did you start this business yourself? A neighbor?
Tam Louder?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
This is so they bunked it from a businessman.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Big business brand. Do you have a family out here?
Are these your kids? Yeah? Do you want your kids
to move to a big city or to stay here forever?
You want the mirror? Okay, to run the shop? Oh,
we are all sorts of good stuff right here. The
adventure doesn't end out here. We've probably met nearly eighty
percent of the village out here right now. Hello, yoh,
(08:18):
this is a tough spawn for this guy. Okay, not
the friendliest parrot. Is that your duck? Quark quark quarkqwork. Oh,
this is beautiful. Kids in the States don't do this.
Look at them fighting with the duck. You got a fish?
Oh dang, beat its head and killed it. Oh, very
generous of you. Whoa Yes, good job. That was funny.
(08:44):
And just like the majority of Indonesia, most of the
people here are Muslim and there's a large mosque in
the center of town. Many of the women covered in
he jobs despite spending most of their days in the water,
doing things like cleaning this boat salam alice, salam, looks
like it may have been damn which by some sort
of storm or hurricane. Their prayer matts inside everything in
(09:04):
here needed to be a good Muslim? What do you
do for a living out here? What's the craziest story?
He has? While being a fisherman?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
A few times so he got safe shaking?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Ask him if bag people can swim much better than
other people? Salmon, they're the best. Okay? How long can
he hold his breath underwater? Young for four minutes? Has
the fishing gotten more difficult out here compared to when
he was a boy? Is it more difficult to fish now?
(09:42):
It's difficult right now? Ask him? Why is it difficult
so many? Because so many people? Have you heard that's
coming from outside from.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
The big island about so many people? So many came
in here.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And too many people do dynamite fishing or the potassium
chloride stuff? Is that common or somewhat rare? People? Is
a bone by many people. While most of the houses
are now connected by makeshift bridges or wooden planks. Some
(10:15):
houses like this one stand alone in the water, only
accessible via boat or by swimming. Right here's Louda's house.
It is only accessible via boat because the bridge is broken. Louda,
I like your house. This is Louda and his brother.
Rumor has it they're some of the best divers here.
But before we see them dive and hunt underwater like fish,
(10:37):
I'm curious how long the village can hold their breath underwater.
For the most part, these guys are underwater for as
long as they need to be. This is a hunting skill,
not showmanship. We want to see what their maximum breath
capacity is.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Basically, a splint can hold fresh auctionated blood, and the
larger spleen is the more fresh auctionated blood that organ
can hold, which technically extends your body's ability to stand
the water longer.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So it's said that.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
In certain families the spleen is three times larger than
average humans.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
We don't have the ability to run an MRI or
an X ray on these guys, so we're gonna test
them in the water right now. I told everyone here,
if they can hold their breath for two minutes. He'll
give him one hundred and fifty thousand rupees. We just
want to incentivize them to see if they can just
stay there, hold their breath, obviously without hurting themselves. All right,
we're gonna have a weighted vest around the individual so
they could just sit there and hold their breath, but
not too heavy obviously to drown them. Okay, he's putting
(11:25):
on the weighted best. He'll be our first diver. Let's
see how long he can hold it. They are ready
for the diving competition. He's under Okay, the time runs
the gun thirty one, not that impressive. He's under twenty
(11:49):
five seconds. That's very not very much. He's under thirty eight.
I'm gonna guess the chain smoking out here is probably
not helping their dive times in lung capacity, but I
could be wrong. Okay, now we have the head boss
Laudas brother what's your name? These two siblings did the
(12:26):
best thus far. But what the Bajau people don't have
in lung capacity, they do have in diving and spear
fishing skills. Okay, Undu, how long have you been diving?
Not how much? How many minutes can you hold your
breath underwater?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
How deep can you go underwater? How do you like
living here in the village atop the water in a
couple of years, do you ever see yourself moving out
of the village and going to a bigger city or
will you live here forever? Givin your Undu's older brother, Yeah, okay?
(13:03):
How deep can you dive underwater? Do you how long
can you hold your breath underwater?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Did play the minim like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Okay, let's do this and Kevin are going to jump
in and do what they typically do underwater dive spearfish,
hold their breath, utilize their Bajaw skills. It like that.
Are the people as good at diving as they once were?
Or is it kind of a dying tradition?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
The budget people have a skill, like they said traditional
just a google not a mask like this and they.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Make it their purposing. By ah, fifty sixty years ago,
like your father's time or your father's father, were there
many more divers than there are now? No now more now?
If not a fish, what it's bad? They catch? Okay, wow,
(14:01):
that was quick. But the skills shown by some of
the more middle aged dudes here in diving and spearfishing
was so impressive that it looked like it was second
nature to them. Okay, that's two fish already in less
than five six minutes. Amazing, good job, very quick, good one,
good job. Wow you got another one, three down already.
Oh he's amazing. Let's see the fish. What is it called? No, no, no,
(14:26):
can we eat it tonight? Yeah? Okay? Undas catching fish
left and right, so many fish, so quickly, very good.
What is that fish's name? A la las a la lash? Smooth? Yeah, smooth?
(14:50):
But oh oh hold horn straight through him. Excuse your beasts?
Is it tough to catch up with them? Oh? Man,
dead especially, can just get down there. He's got his
traditional goggles, which are cool. Yeah they don't. They don't
suction cup.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
They're made of wood and glass and they literally just
it is the pressure of going down deep that holds.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Him against your face. Whoa pretty awesome. Makes it look
a little too easy. These guys are small though. A
lot of us has fished out and uh so, but
you get quantity, you still eat. So we're seeing the
effects of overfishing out here, I think. So, how are
you able to dive so well while you smoke one
packet day. While spearfishing is certainly one way to catch
(15:31):
a bunch of fish, those who are often more desperate
and less talented at diving have been driven to more
high risk, high reward methods. Dynamite fishing is an extremely
dangerous yet effective technique where the user throws a homemade
bomb into the ocean that explodes and creates a shockwave
in the water that kills countless fish instantly. Have you
ever almost blown yourself up while dynamite fishing? Do you
(15:55):
know anyone who has blown themselves or part of their
bodies up doing dynamite fishing for.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Money?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You have the money to.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Get money and then heyes, now that it is dangerous,
that's why what we waiting to do, he said.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Despite the risk of being arrested or blowing yourself up,
the potential reward of a big fishing hall caught quick
leaves the dynamite fishers like this guy building and throwing
bombs for living. And on top of blowing up the
reefs with bombs, Research shows at the Pajo fishermen's use
of potassium cyanide to stun and catch rare reef fish
that are then sold for high prices. To aquariums and
(16:32):
exotic seafood markets slows down the reef's ability to recover
even more than the dynamite fishing does. We found an
interview this guy who does it full time for living. Oh,
real quick, I'd be like going down the road, you
fucking If you want to support our boots on the ground,
independent journalism that is not bought and paid for by
corporate interests, along with exclusive DLC content that YouTube won't
(16:55):
let me upload and uncensored early access to all my
videos before they go off on YouTube, go subscribe at
patreon dot com slash Tyler Olivera for less than five
bucks a month. Why do you use the potassium cyanide
instead of spearfishing or net fishing? When you use the potassium?
(17:16):
How many fish do you end up killing? Are you
ever afraid the government will catch you?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Actually a pry to the government, but heidi haii and
when they come to catching, nothing improved, no proof, no proof.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. Does the government crack down on it or do
they not really care? How many fish do you catch
each time you throw dynamites in the water? What is
the punishment if they catch you? How many rupees does
(17:58):
he make you do you think you'll ever stop? Gotta
respect the game as destructive fishing practices, overfishing, coral bleaching
(18:20):
from rising sea temperatures contribute to the habitat loss of fish,
but jo fishermen claim that they have to go further
and dive deeper only to catch less fish, making the
life blood of their day to day existence increasingly at
risk as time goes on. I met up with the
oldest elder in the village, and ALBARTI here the village's
history and how it's changed since he's been alive. Okay, Albert,
(18:41):
what is this place to you? Did you grow up here? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Actually this is the main village. I always grow grow
up here by in nineteen uh.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Eighty, what do you remember as a boy?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
The houses separate, ea, charter walking path man me visit?
Did you in the neighbors streaming and then talking in
the y the under under house?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Okay? And how many people lived here when you were
a boy?
Speaker 6 (19:10):
When a boy here almost two hundred and now we
have how many, well thousand, three hundred people?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Okay, much bigger. Do you have to be a fisherman
to make money here?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, everyone fishes. What do you want the future to
look like. And what do you think it will look like? Man?
You got.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
The future. I think this here here just for the
be better here, I think. I think because they used
to seeing the types like.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Your fish, like your cano. It's easier now. Life is
easier now. Okay, did every kid have access to school here?
When you grew up and you swam to school Indio.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
School, me ma manna and Lukangamamamiana makura used to be easy.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And mamami and every But as the Bajau people are
forced to engage in increasingly dangerous and unsustainable fishing practices
to survive, the future of them and their village looks uncertain.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.