Hard-Hat Diving Suit, Point Lobos, Carmel, California, from before 1928

Whaling Station Museum, Point Lobos, Carmel, California.

In the mid-1890's, a young marine biologist from Japan, Gennosuke Kodani, arrived at Point Lobos to investigate reports of rich beds of abalone in the area and soon sent for workers from his native village of Chiba. As the supply of shallow-water abalone dwindled, the workers donned hard-hat diving suits and ventured out on boats into deeper water. Using hand-powered pumps to supply air to the divers, the Japanese at Point Lobos pioneered an industry that eventually spread up and down the California coast.
-- Point Lobos Foundation



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