Peoples of the sea

Master wayfinders who settled thousands of scattered Pacific islands centuries before the compass, reading the stars, swells, winds and birds to cross the open ocean in outrigger canoes.

A seafaring people who spend their lives on boats and stilt villages, free-diving to astonishing depths — some have even evolved larger spleens to hold their breath longer.

Nomadic “sea gypsies” of the Andaman Sea whose children can see clearly underwater, and whose sea-lore helped many survive the 2004 tsunami by reading the ocean’s warning signs.

Arctic peoples who hunt and travel the frozen sea in skin kayaks and on the ice, with deep knowledge of currents, sea ice and the animals of the far north.

In open longships the Vikings crossed the stormy North Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland and North America — 500 years before Columbus — guided by the sun and the sea itself.

The “sea women” of Jeju Island, who free-dive without air tanks into cold water to gather shellfish and seaweed — a tradition led by women, many into their seventies.