Four years ago, Bae Chong was commuting to her job on the Seoul subway. She spent her days working at a hair salon. It was a gruelling life: she had trouble finding time to care for her children, she was constantly sick, and interacting with indifferent strangers left her drained. And, bottom line, she never seemed to make ends meet. Now, like her mother before her, Bae spends her working days diving into the Korean Strait without an oxygen tank to gather seafood from the ocean floor.
Bae is a haenyeo, a member of a traditional profession on the Jeju island. Known for their independent spirit, iron will, and determination, the ‘last mermaids’ represent the long history of the semi-matriarchal structure of Jeju society. For centuries, these female divers have earned a living by plunging into the sea to gather its edible treasures and sell them. In the 1600s, women started taking over the diving work. Historians say they became experts in sumbisori: an ancient breathing technique, essential in their work, which their male counterparts could not match. Additionally, some of the Jeju men went deep-sea fishing and never came back. As women’s earnings were free from the heavy taxes imposed by the king, and there was ever-increasing demand for the abalone or the ear shell, Jeju women earned a lot of money.
Bae says she didn’t realise before she became a haenyeo that the women take pills to cope with motion sickness, which is intensified by the stink of their rubber suits and the disorienting fogging of their masks. She has found this to be the most challenging part of the job, and it took her too long to get accustomed to this. Some haenyeo report that they face strong currents and poor visibility and others have been washed out to sea or caught in riptides. The haenyeo must be careful not to push too far. Spending so much time under water, for inexperienced beginners, can lead to fatal heart problems.
The sheer amount of time spent under the sea means that the haenyeo have been first-hand witnesses to the environmental devastation of our oceans. Contamination will soon be the biggest problem. The seas off Korea’s southern coast have warmed, which will lead to an influx of new species. On Jeju, the degradation of the existing underwater habitat has become increasingly severe because large seaweed has disappeared, causing marine life to die off. The occupation is becoming less viable. Changes in the environment are mainly to blame as they take away everything that is vital for a haenyeo. Some think that the barrier to becoming a haenyeo is set intentionally high so that the existing divers do not have to share diminishing resources. There is also the competition from farmed seafood, and cheap imports. Combine that with the life-threatening nature of the job, and it is no surprise that it may soon become impossible to find new recruits. Moreover, young women are leaving Jeju and trying to find more stable jobs.
The Jeju government has started preservation measures for the haenyeo. They have recognised that the demand for haenyeo seafood could attract more tourists. Hopefully, this will help to create new jobs. The government wants to emphasise the historical importance of the haenyeo, who have been reimagined as Korea’s pioneer feminists, and whose independent income has allowed them to have a voice in the predominantly patriarchal family structure. Their community-based, strictly hierarchical social structure has been linked to a model of democratic community governance and sustainable environmental practice.
The main reason Bae left her old job was
According to historians, Jeju women took over the role of free divers because of
According to Bae, the hardest part of doing haenyeo is
At this point, the biggest threat to marine biodiversity in the haenyeo area is
Haenyeo culture is becoming extinct because of
The government is trying to preserve haenyeo culture because haenyeo divers
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