The Ama Pearl Diving Girls Of Japan...

The Japanese ama girls are now viewed as a tourist attraction on the pearl diver's Island of Mikimoto, but the tradition of ama girl divers goes back 2000 years. Women are the ones who dive, rather than men, because women have more fat on their bodies, supposedly, to keep them warm. It used to be that the ama would dive for seafood and for abalone shells to use in temple worship. (Natural pearls from the sea are becoming more and more rare. Ama are more likely to dive for cultured pearls.)

And, traditionally ama would dive naked, because skin dries quickly, much quicker than cloth. Amas dove nude as late as the 1950s. However, today the ama wear white diving clothing, for modesty. (White is said to be less attractive to sharks than other colors.) 

Ama girls dive without scuba equipment, going to depths of 60 feet. An ama can hold her breath for 2 minutes or more. (Just try that and you'll see it's a long time!)

Today, there are only about 60 or 70 professional ama working off the shores of Mikimoto Island.