For ages, the sea women of Jeju, off the southern coast of South Korea, have braved treacherous waters for their harvest.
Photo source: Jean Chung for The New York Times
The number of sea women has dwindled to about 4,500, from 26,000 in the 1960s, with 84 percent of them 60 or older.
“Most of the haenyeo will be gone in 20 years unless we have new recruits,” said Yang Hi-bum, a Jeju government official.
For as long as Koreans can remember, sea women have been as emblematic of Jeju as snow-capped Mount Halla at its center. They duck under water more than 100 times a day, grabbing sea creatures barehanded or sometimes with a spear. Resurfacing a minute later, making a plaintive whistle as they exhale, they deposit their catch into a net sack tied to a float.
“Haenyeo were Korea’s first working moms,” said Koh Mi, an editor at the Jeju newspaper Jemin Ilbo and a participant in a nine-year research project on the sea women. “They were a symbol of female independence and strength in Korea.”
To read the complete article from The New York Times, please click here.