Abalone Diving Tasmania

Abalone divers are among the last of the hunter-gatherers. They live by their wits, their unrelenting hard labour and hard-won experience. Their workplace is beneath the sea, in an almost pristine wilderness. It is an independent life tempered by ever-present risk, from the 'bends', to nitrogen narcosis, known as 'the raptures of the deep', and of course sharks. Fifteen experienced men share their memories, from the time of the first frozen exports in the early 1960s to the present time.