S. Korea's 'sea women' getting smaller catches because of warming seas
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Haenyeo, or "sea women" floating in the water as they work in the sea off Geoje, South Korea. Every year the waters are a little less icy - warming as much as 2.6 times more than the world average - changing the undersea habitat and casting doubt on the future of the haenyeo as their catch is reduced.
PHOTO: REUTERS
GEOJE (SOUTH KOREA) • Clad in a black wet suit and pink face mask, Jin So-hee's figure cleanly parts the green-blue water until she abruptly dives below the surface, her purple fins disappearing into the deep.
When she resurfaces a minute and a half later, her gloved hands grip six or seven sea cucumbers, their spiked backs glistening in the sun.
"This is the biggest one, what do we do?", she asks her partner Woo Jung-min. "The boss is going to be mad. He told us to bring in the really big ones today."
Climate change and environmental pollution have made finding enough sea life to harvest more difficult for Ms Jin, Ms Woo, and other South Korean haenyeo, or "sea women".
For six years, Ms Jin, 28, has dived the icy seas off the rocky shore of Geoje Island, gathering abalone, conches, seaweed and other marine life by hand to be sold in local markets.
Every year the waters are a little less icy - warming as much as 2.6 times more than the world average - changing the undersea habitat and casting doubt on the future of the haenyeo.
Ms Jin and Ms Woo, 35, are some of the youngest women following a centuries-old tradition of free-dive fishing without oxygen that has already faced massive upheaval in the face of advances in fishing practices and altered village life in the high-tech world of modern South Korea.
The vast majority of living haenyeo are now over the age of 70, and in neighbouring Busan, veteran divers told Reuters catches are now a fraction of what was harvested decades ago.
"I'll continue unless I'm sick, and my wish is this seafood can live until then so that I can continue this work," said 86-year-old Ko Bok-hwa, who has been a diver since she was 13.
Ms Jin and Ms Woo have tried to adapt, running a YouTube channel called "Yozum Haenyeo" (Modern Sea Women) to chronicle their lives and work, with their most popular video garnering more than 600,000 views.
But climate change may permanently dash their hopes of spending their lives working as free divers. "I thought that as long as my body is healthy, I could be the oldest haenyeo when I'm 90 or 100," Ms Jin told Reuters.
"Now that I think about it, my health is not the only concern. I'm worried this job will change drastically or even disappear because of climate change."
REUTERS