Haenyeo: South Korea’s Last Women of the Sea
Words by Liv Franks
Should you find yourself on Jeju Island’s volcanic coastline, don’t put your headphones in. Instead, admire the view and wait for high-pitched whistles to slice through the air. You’ve not interrupted a rare bird colony; it is a group of female divers getting ready for the day's work. Stay a moment and take it in because this ancient practice may not be around for much longer.
The Haenyeo are female free divers who have carved out a pocket of matriarchy on South Korea’s largest island. For centuries now, they have harvested seaweed and shellfish without any mechanical diving equipment. In doing so, they flipped conventional social dynamics on their head and made enough to support their families. In the 17th Century, the men on Jeju Island were either being conscripted or embarking on long-distance fishing trips, which splintered family dynamics. The gulf left behind had to be filled. Seeing as the volcanic landscape of the island didn’t support much agrarian work, the women turned their eyes to the ocean.
They began the arduous diving training and found that they were rather good at it. In fact, the women got so good at it, generation upon generation, that a 2025 study, Diving behaviour and physiology of the Korean Haenyeo, recently published in Current Biology by a team of scientists headed by Dr Chris McKnight, has found that the time spent underwater by the Haenyeo “exceeded semi-aquatic mammals such as the beaver”. Collecting data from 1,786 dives, they found that diving sessions “lasted 124 to 636 minutes, which is a greater proportion of time at sea per day than polar bears.” The science backs up the cultural significance. The Haenyeo consistently stretch what was previously assumed possible, and highlight how they outperform male divers worldwide, and a fair few aquatic animals, too.
These dive sessions allow the Haenyeo to harvest delicacies like seaweed, conches, abalones, octopus, and oysters. Not only can they support their families, but they also earn enough to improve the local economy, invest in property, and lead religious ceremonies. Pregnancy has become an accepted part of the job, with divers continuing to work until their ninth month. If one woman had a child, other mothers would care for the baby as she dived. As Kim Ok Ja puts it, “I became a Haenyeo in order to live”. The island’s matriarchy was established. Men continued to be in short supply on the island, up until the end of the Korean War. The matriarchy thrived for so long that UNESCO awarded them a place on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. However, in recent years, the realities of modern life have begun to sound the death knell for the Haenyeo’s way of life.
Despite being invaluable “guardians of the sea”, the Haenyeo face an uncertain future. They battle climate change and insufficient recruitment among young Korean women. Firstly, the rising sea temperatures have negatively impacted the ocean’s ecology. Hotter waters are not conducive to growing seaweed which constitutes the main source of food for much of the shellfish that the Haenyeo want to harvest. One diver says that there used to be 200 Haenyeo who exclusively harvested conches, but that it is barely reaching 100 now, as there aren’t enough to go around. The warmer water also encourages an increased jellyfish population to linger and further disrupt the ecosystem.
In an area that the Haenyeo have so diligently protected, for example, by avoiding catching conch if they are smaller than 7cm and not harvesting during breeding season, it is frustrating to see their conservation efforts being undone by outside factors. One such factor is companies dumping pollutants into the East China Sea. In fact, they took to the docks to protest the Fukushima water dumping policy, holding banners that read “if the sea dies, so does Jeju”. These strong-willed women won’t take this threat to their livelihood lying (or diving) down but it is hard to make a dent when your opposition consists of government agreements and million-dollar companies.
Secondly, we come to the problem of age. Yes, it is impolite to ask a lady her age, but it is impossible to ignore the amount of wrinkled faces behind the masks. In fact, over 80% of the approximately 4,500 divers left are over the age of 60. The younger generations of Korean women have been encouraged to follow white collar career paths, and, moreover, have been urged to head to urban centres on the mainland to further their financial prospects. Pair this with the rigour required to train as a Haenyeo capable of staying in the water for up to seven hours and holding their breath for up to three minutes per dive, and suddenly, there are very few women who wish to earn their living this way. Very few of the Haenyeo want to pass on this hardship to their younger relatives, either. One diver stated, “The Haenyeo are closer than sisters. But I don’t want to bequeath this work to my daughters.”
As the numbers streamline, the elderly cast an air of guardianship upon the vocation. They are aware of it, too, proclaiming that they will “fight to the end” to protect their role in society. They’ve begun to look to the outside world for support. The women have recently been the protagonists of multiple English language documentaries, for example, Apple TV’s “The Last of the Sea Women”. Cameras follow their day-to-day routines as they relate how they have “protected the ocean for hundreds of years”. Each morning, smiling, resilient women greet the camera despite facing hardships such as diving a week after giving birth and moving through polluted oceans. The women remain proud of what free diving has given them, and what they have given Jeju. Diver Hyun says, “I was able to raise two children, provide for their education, and see them successfully married”, all thanks to the financial freedom she acquired through free diving. I doubt anyone can refute the social and environmental value these women have brought to South Korea.
Not only is their social structure a rare gem in the wider global system of patriarchy, but they have oftentimes been the only voices standing up for the oceans off the coast of Jeju. Now it is time for more voices to join the table and support these incredible women in their fight to preserve their legacy.
