And then I begin to see why the ama have kept the ocean to themselves all those centuries, and why they’re apprehensive about sharing their secrets with outsiders, especially men. There I am, the typical male, exploiting the latest technology to find a shortcut into a world I only dimly understand. In some ways, I’m no different than the fishermen on the trawlers sailing out behind us. I am disrupting the balance of the ocean that the ama have spent the last twenty-five hundred years trying to protect.
