Scientists discovered how the Moken sea nomads developed an extraordinary ability to see underwater like dolphins

For most people, opening their eyes underwater turns the world into a blur.

The human eye is designed to focus light passing through air, and once submerged, much of that focusing power is lost.

Yet for generations, the children of the Moken, an Indigenous sea-nomad community living around the Andaman Sea between Thailand and Myanmar, have demonstrated an astonishing exception.

Spending much of their childhood diving for shellfish, sea cucumbers and other marine life, they are able to see underwater with a clarity that has long fascinated scientists.

Their remarkable visual ability is so effective that researchers have compared it with the underwater vision of dolphins, revealing one of the most extraordinary examples of human adaptation ever documented.Why humans normally struggle to see underwaterHuman eyes are optimised for vision in air.