For hundreds of years, women in Korea's southernmost island of Jeju have made their living harvesting
seafood by hand from the ocean floor.
They are known as haenyeo, female free-divers who submerge under deep sea without any breathing
apparatus.
You might picture extraordinary people with extra human powers... but they are not.
Always tired and breathless but embodying incredible mental and physical strength they
are the sisters, mothers, and grandmothers of the people of Jeju Island.
We shed light on the Korean women divers of Jeju Island who have faced the tempestuous
tides of history and struggle for economic survival for centuries.
I went to meet them... they say "We go to the otherworld to earn money, and return to
the earthly world to save our kids."
Jeju.
Lying 64 kilometers south of the Korean peninsula... the island of Jeju is one of Korea's most
popular holiday spots...
with its beautiful landscape and mild weather.
It's called the Land of Paradise, Hawaii of Korea... but among many things, Jeju has traditionally
been referred to as Samdado... or land of three abundances: "roaring winds, magnificent
rocks and women."
"Not just any woman.
But, women who've been free-diving into the sea for centuries and generations to feed
the children, to support the family... for survival."
On a sunny yet chilly morning in May...
72-year-old Lee Sung-mae and her village sisters...
head out for their daily routine.
With their diving gear tucked beneath their arms, the elderly women chat as they make
their way to a rocky beach on the western side of the island.
As they have for 60 years, they wipe their goggles with a fistful of mugwort and jump
into the darkness of the deep sea.
"Once you dive in the water, you bring back cash.
Life was so hard that we couldn't live without harvesting underwater."
"There was no other way to making a living.
My mother was a haenyeo, my sister-in-law is a haenyeo and I also learned to dive here.
From a very young age, we all learned to free-dive."
"It's hard work but what can we do?
I educated my children with the money earned from harvesting underwater.
I sent my kids to college on the mainland doing this."
They are haenyeo... female divers of Jeju who take to the ocean as deep as 10, 20 meters...
without any special diving or breathing equipment.
For centuries, they've braved the treacherous waters of the Korea Strait... using only flippers
and goggles as they scour the sea bed for abalone, conch and octopus.
These women hold their breath for up to three minutes, withstand intense water pressure...
the frigid water temperatures...
struggling to improve their bounty in order to make ends meet.
The first historical references to the haenyeo can be traced back to the 17th century.
"By the 17th century, men were going to sea to fish or work on warships and they never
returned, so diving became exclusively women's work.
Documents from the late 17th century show women gathering abalone as well as seaweed
from the ocean floor."
No one knows for sure how the haenyeo became the primary breadwinners of their families...
but in a country where Confucianism has left an indelible patriarchal mark everywhere,
haenyo culture has long bucked conventional gender roles on the island.
When they are not in the ocean, they grow crops and harvest the land, do household work
and take care of the children.
Seventy-two-year-old Lee is at a relative's house... after a five hour dive.
It's a day to perform ancestral rites... the women in the neighborhood get together to
help out... as even after an exhausting day underwater, THIS too is the women's work.
"Women have a lot of work to do in Jeju.
We give birth to children, feed them, send them to school...
We go harvesting underwater, farm when we're not in the ocean.
Preparing for these ancestral rites is also our job."
"Jeju women have always been strong and economically productive.
When we first got married, my wife used to bring back up to 100 kilograms of abalone
and conch.
Sometimes I feel bad that men just stay at home when the women are in the icy water.
But, it's always been that way here."
Traditionally a job handed down from mother to daughter, haenyeo life has been shunned
in recent decades by nearly all the girls born in Jeju's seaside villages.
They tend to favor more comfortable lives in the island's two cities or on the mainland.
"Diving in the sea is such a harsh, low-esteem job.
Holding your breath, going underwater...
it's strenuous.
Why would the young ones want to take on this job?"
As the average age of haenyeos grows and many already well into their 80s... that lineage
is fading leaving many wondering how long this unique tradition can continue.
"Haenyeo are the Mother of Jeju.
Not only are they the pillar of their household economy, but they are the backbone of the
economic development of Jeju.
This coupled with their maternal affection and culture of solicitude is what makes Jeju
Island the way it is now."
Their lives are not just an integral part of the island but the culture and history
of Jeju itself.