They live in temporary homes on stilts and on their ships, scattered throughout the seas of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
They have lived this way for over 1,000 years and are completely dependent on nearby seafood for their diet. This forces them to work underwater all day to catch shrimp, crabs, fish, and squid.
For this reason, the Bajau pierce their eardrums to equalize the pressure between the outer ear and the middle ear, which helps them avoid discomfort when diving to great depths. However, piercing the eardrum can also reduce their hearing and make them more susceptible to ear infections. This is a sacrifice the Bajau must make in order to live under the water.
What is extremely unusual is that they can dive for more than 13 minutes at a depth of 60 meters below sea level. Why can they do this? It turns out that they have a spleen much larger than that of normal people. This organ is able to pump more oxygen into the blood and works very similar to a biological underwater tank. Their spleen is more than 50 percent larger in volume than that of normal people.
The peculiarity is that this feature is found not only in the divers of the tribe, but also in other members, including children who have never dived before. This means that they have evolved to live more easily under the sea.
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