On the southernmost tip of South Korea off the coast of Jeju Island,
a highly valuable mollusk can be found on the seabed.
Only a few people know how and where to find them.
The Haenyeo or "sea women" have passed on their knowledge for generations.
These brave women of all ages challenged the ocean current
and dive to depths of over 20 meters without any breathing aids
to handpick these valuable objects from the ocean floor.
And yet, the centuries-old tradition is slowly dying out.
Lack of new blood is an important factor.
But significant environmental changes also pose a threat
to an old, low-impact form of fishing
that was once an integral part of local society.
Nowadays, South Korea is predominantly known for its bustling,
densely-populated cities and modern urban societies.
But in the country's more remote parts, like the island province of Jeju,
you can find remnants of wild coastline surrounded by bountiful waters
full of marine life.
This pod of bottlenose dolphins have grown up sharing these waters
with an all-female free-diving community known as the Haenyeo.
Like the dolphins, they dive free, exploring the depths on a single breath,
scouring the seabed in search of its natural treasures.
They live side by side, as they have done for hundreds of years.
No one's quite sure when Jeju's inhabitants
first started harvesting shellfish from the ocean floor,
but it seems that the free divers have been around for centuries.
These historical records and old illustrations from the 1700s
depict life, culture and events on Jeju during the Joe Sun dynasty:
Being a shell trading hub for China and Japan,
we can clearly see Haenyeo diving for seaweed in its waters.
The Haenyeo became an exclusively female profession
and a tradition and lifestyle that has endured until today.
In the post-war Korea of the 1950s and 60s,
the economy of Jeju was booming.
Trade rose sharply with the mainland and neighboring Japan,
where the harvested seafood was sold.
The free divers were a significant, integral part of the local economy,
with many young girls aspiring to become Haenyeo one day.
Many Jeju families, particularly on the tiny islets off the coast,
such as Matador, where sea diving was the sole source of income,
relied on the Haenyeo for the majority of their earnings,
turning it into a semi-matriarchal society.
The Haenyeo culture is harsh and strictly hierarchical.
It takes many years of tough training to become a sea diver
prepared for the extreme working conditions:
Strong currents, cold temperatures and constant pressure changes
are very demanding for the human body.
Significant physiological changes occur during a breath hold dive
called the mammalian diving reflex.
Heart rate and metabolism are reduced to slow the rate at which oxygen is used
with oxygen stores depleted, the body starts diverting blood
from the hands and feet to vital organs.
It's exhausting, even for the younger divers.
But as the Korean economy kept growing,
the Haenyeo saw a significant decline in numbers:
The modernization of the fishing industry
and the prospect of more lucrative and less demanding jobs on the mainland
led younger locals to look for different opportunities.
Of the more than 20,000 Haenyeo in the 1960s,
only 4,300 remain today.
The young girls who enthusiastically started their careers back then
are still the same women who take to the water today
with little to no staffing restaffing.
I'm too old for that now...
...it's time for me to leave this world.
The local government of Jeju spent the equivalent of 6.5 million USD
on preservation measures for the Haenyeo.
And in 2016, UNESCO awarded the divers
a Cultural Heritage of Humanity designation.
Divers of Jeju or the Haenyeo, as they're known,
really represent a grand cultural heritage and that's why we're trying to save them.
The policies worked.
The appeal and prestige of Korea's free-diving profession
have increased again in recent years.
Several young women have chosen to embark on this career path.
Jin So-hee' and Woo Jung-min are among the younger women
following the centuries-old tradition of free dive fishing.
The pair run a YouTube channel called "Yozum Haenyeo", or “Modern Sea Women“,
chronicling their lives and work
with their most popular video garnering more than 800,000 views.
However, they now have to face and address a completely new threat
to this once sustainable form of fishing.
Climate change and environmental pollution have made it difficult
for the "sea women" to find enough sea life to harvest.
For six years, Jim has been diving in the icy seas off this rocky shore,
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,
casting doubt on the future of the Haenyeo.
Warmer waters have changed the habitat on the sea floor
by introducing more stony coral and killing off seaweed forests.
Large beds of seaweed have disappeared, replaced by rock-like coralline algae
and resulting in the decrease of marine resources.
With less seaweed, which the Haenyeo also harvest as food,
the women have to dive increasingly deeper.
This is more physically challenging
and the women say they have to deal with more pollution as well.
Further complicating their already dangerous job.
I'm worried this job will disappear
because of climate change.
For divers like Jin and Woo,
The main concern is the future of a life
that's deeply intertwined with the ecosystem that surrounds them.
They fight daily to keep the tradition alive
and hope they can make enough not just to keep food on their own tables,
but also to pass on their knowledge to future generations one day.
It is indeed fascinating to find out more about people
that actively engage in the ecosystem that surrounds them.
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