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This piece is one of 10 winners. 2022 Profile Contest. you can find more here. Haedam Lee, 14 and Yeonji Joo13, authors, go Branksome Lounge Asian It is in Seogwipo City, South Korea.

Real Life Aquawomen: Haenyeo

By Haedam Lee and Yeonji Joo

A wave-dancing cluster of “orange blossoms” floats across the vast Jeju ocean. Suddenly, “Hwui! Pah…” and a haenyeo rises to the surface of the cold winter sea. He stuffs a small abalone into the net attached to the floating orange buoy and prepares to dive again. In the middle of Haenyeo’s breathlessness, a whale-like whistle is heard again. This is sumbisori: Kore’ A sound made by female divers in the process of breathing without the aid of any technology in the state of Jeju.

“Hey! Hah…” 55-year-old Haenyeo held her breath after a deep dive as Lee Ji-hye took her turn.

A novice in the Haenyeo community, Ms. Lee moved to Jeju from Seoul six years ago. While working for hours as a diver and collecting sea creatures, Lee found himself exposed to the ravages of pollution.

“It used to be the cleanest sea I’ve ever been to, now it’s a field of plastics,” Ms. Lee said.

At first, he was fascinated by Jeju’s nature as the island is known for its pristine ecosystem. However, according to Ms. Lee, this is no longer the case. On his monthly dives, he encounters waste floating in the ocean.

“Sometimes we dive into the ocean to collect garbage,” he said.

Climate change and pollution pose an imminent threat as the Haenyeos rely on nature and dive without the aid of technology, putting their lives and livelihoods at risk.

The following are excerpts from conversations with Ms. Lee, translated from Korean and edited for clarity.

What happens in a day in a haenyeo’s life?

First, we meet on the shore and prepare our teams and taewaks. [the orange floats that hold the catch] and other equipment. Then we check the weather to make sure it’s safe for us to dive. Once approved, we board a small boat and dive into the sea! We spend five hours or more working in and out of the water to clean sea creatures. Then we get out, hop on the boat and return to the island and clean our harvests as well as ourselves. Although our work is not long, it is certainly tiring.

What was your hardest and most enjoyable moment as Haenyeo?

Most of the activities we do as Haenyeos are risky; however, hard physical labor is the most demanding. We dive more than 200 times a day, which means high levels of endurance and breathing techniques are required. Since most haenyeos are old, it becomes difficult to keep up with the requirements for the job. On the other hand, the most enjoyable part of being a haenyeo is the feeling of satisfaction when diving into the water without thinking about anything. Even though it’s hard being Haenyeo, I love my job because that’s what I really want to do.

Have you had any accidents while working?

The risk of getting caught in ocean litter like old nets is a big problem. When we enter the water, the large nets are almost invisible. It’s hard to think rationally when we’re suddenly caught and panicked because we’re only dependent on our breath in diving. Not just nets, but plastic pollution is also a problem. Most of the time we would find plastic hanging on chestnuts. To solve this problem, we sometimes dive just to collect plastic from the sea. While this won’t make the problem go away, we’re trying to mitigate ocean waste. because our work is directly linked to the sustainability of nature. If nature cannot be protected, we have nothing to do.

Have you seen or felt the effects of climate change or rising temperatures while working?

We usually operate in the early morning when the sea is cooler, around 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit). However, recently temperatures have been staying at 17 degrees Celsius allowing the sharks to live in warmer waters. This poses a threat when operating in shallow waters. I also witnessed that underwater plants such as algae melt in the summer months due to the extreme heat. Algae are not only our livelihood, but also food for other sea creatures. We need the temperature to drop again to stop the cycle of nature and the destruction of our livelihood.