Since the 17th century, the all-female Haenyeo divers have harvested seafood near South Korea's Jeju Island — and they don't use modern scuba gear to this day.
Imago/Alamy Stock PhotoA Haenyeo diver showing off octopuses caught off the coast of Jeju Island in South Korea.
On South Korea’s largest island, Jeju, there is a community of women known as the Haenyeo. The Haenyeo are divers who specialize in gathering seafood like conches, seaweed, and octopuses. Some Haenyeo can dive as deep as 30 feet, without using oxygen masks or any other modern-day scuba gear. They harvest seafood for up to seven hours per day, 90 days a year, for this is how it has been done for centuries.
Most of the Haenyeo working today are between 65 and 75 years old, and some are as old as 90, serving as living representatives of the island’s semi-matriarchal societal structure. But this was not always the case.
When the Haenyeo first emerged in the 17th century, the community initially included both men and women. But before long, the women of Jeju realized how many male divers were being drafted into the army, seeking work elsewhere, or simply losing their lives at sea. Determined to support their families, the women of Jeju bravely took on the water themselves.
However, despite this rich history, the number of Haenyeo is declining rapidly in modern times. Amidst the rise of industrialization in Korea in the 1960s, many women on Jeju Island turned to industries that were less strenuous than sea-diving. As the Haenyeo’s numbers continue to dwindle today, it is perhaps more important than ever before to chronicle their past.
The Origins Of The Haenyeo Divers
Wikimedia CommonsTraditional tools and clothing once used by the Haenyeo, known as the “women of the sea.”
The Haenyeo, or “sea women,” were first mentioned in the historical record in the 17th century, in a monograph where they are referred to as “jamnyeo,” or “diving women.” Around that time, both men and women were divers, but governmental decisions soon began to drive men out of the profession.
As Luciano Candisani writes for Sidetracked, “the abalone — most noble of molluscs — was confiscated for tax reasons by the royal government. Outraged by the abusive charges, male divers, known as pojak, started leaving Jeju by the thousands, often seeking work in distant lands.”
As Candisani explains further, many men were also drafted into the army around this time, meaning that the women of Jeju were largely left behind to fend for themselves. Thankfully, many of them already knew how to dive and gather mollusks, and they kept doing so. Over time, the process evolved to incorporate new traditions, specific tools, and unique diving techniques.
According to Oceanographic’s José Jeuland, with many women now serving the role of breadwinner in their families, young girls began to be trained to become Haenyeo early on. They began their training at 10, sometimes even younger, during which they learned to dive into depths of over 30 feet, holding their breath for two minutes, sometimes even three minutes.
Wikimedia CommonsA Haenyeo diver pictured near Jeju Island in 2012.
Naturally, in the 17th century, they didn’t have the benefits of today’s diving equipment to help them. But even as new diving technologies — like oxygen masks — came into being, the Haenyeo did not use them. Though modern gear would help them gather more seafood, they were concerned that would lead to the elimination of certain shellfish and algae in the sea. The few pieces of new equipment they embraced were limited to wetsuits, flippers, goggles, and weighted vests that helped them dive even deeper.
It’s worth noting that the development of Haenyeo culture is an anomaly. Historically, in most cultures around the world, it’s rare for women to be held in high societal esteem (other than royalty, of course). Even more remarkable, the Haenyeo culture emerged during a particularly oppressive time for Korean women, when they were discouraged from walking in public — and were asked to hide their faces behind a veil when they did.
The Haenyeo stood in stark contrast to this, establishing a proud legacy on Jeju Island. But for better or worse, the Haenyeo culture is fading away.
Rapid Changes In Korea In The 20th Century
When the Japanese took control of Korea during the early 20th century, they allowed the Haenyeo to make a profit off the seafood they caught, but that hardly meant that things improved for the people of Jeju Island. Japan made major changes to Korea, forcing the country to undergo a process of “Japanization.” For a time, many Koreans were essentially forbidden from using Korean names or even speaking the Korean language.
At the same time, Japan introduced new forms of public infrastructure to Korea, ordering the construction of numerous railways, ports, and roads. Though it’s clear that Japanese authorities did not have good intentions when it added these new structures — especially since workers were forced to toil under horrifically poor conditions — the transformation of Korea did set the stage for the country’s future economic growth.
By the time World War II began, a strong anti-Japan sentiment that had been growing in Korea came to a boiling point — including on Jeju Island. Multiple uprisings sprang up, only to be shut down, often violently. This volatile situation set the stage for the Korean War, which raged from 1950 to 1953.
Wikimedia CommonsPeople awaiting execution on Jeju Island during the Jeju Uprising in 1948.
Two years before the Korean War began, though, there was another major incident — one that took place on Jeju Island. Known as the Jeju Uprising, it involved an insurgency organized by the Workers’ Party of South Korea, during which people on Jeju took up arms against police and Northwest Youth League members stationed on Jeju to shut down protests.
In the end, as many as 30,000 people on Jeju Island were killed, while an estimated 40,000 people fled, oddly enough, to Japan. Nearly 40,000 homes were destroyed, and most of the villages were burned down.
It was clear that the island had to rebuild, effectively from the ground up. Unfortunately, this also had major consequences for the Haenyeo.
How Industrialization And A Dwindling Interest In Freediving Caused Haenyeo Numbers To Decline
Xinhua/Alamy Stock PhotoA group of Haenyeo in 2023.
Amidst the years of turmoil after World War II, Korea had become a split country. As it became firmly separated into North Korea and South Korea, Jeju Island struggled once more to recuperate and adjust to the changes. Years of warfare and uprisings meant that many people had died, and, once again, a large number of young men had abandoned their homes on the island. This paved the way for the last peak period of the Haenyeo.
Building new factories on Jeju Island wasn’t as easy as it was on the mainland, so the South Korean government needed to figure out another way to boost the economy on the island. The Haenyeo divers were more than content to keep harvesting seafood like urchins, kelp, and squid to make a living and support their families, as they had always done, but not everyone believed that would yield the economic results necessary.
Eventually, officials decided to focus on growing mandarin oranges all over the island. The mass farming of the flavorful oranges soon made Jeju Island a popular tourist destination, and it also provided the people of Jeju with jobs — jobs that were notably less dangerous than diving into the sea. And so the numbers of the Haenyeo soon began to decline.
Andrew Bain/Alamy Stock PhotoA mural on Jeju Island honoring the Haenyeo.
At the Haenyeo’s peak, there were about 23,000 divers working in the mid-1960s. By 1970, there were 14,143 — and that number has continued to decrease in the decades since then. Today, only a few thousand Haenyeo divers remain on Jeju, perhaps around 3,000 to 4,000.
As Sidetracked reports, few young women in Jeju are interested in following in the footsteps of the older Haenyeo, many of whom endured decades of difficult, dangerous work. The active Haenyeo understand why there are so few new volunteers. “I went into the sea very young,” one said, “and suffered a great deal. Even though I had many daughters, I never told them to become Haenyeo. I decided to end all this with me. The Haenyeo are closer than sisters. But I don’t want to bequeath this work to my daughters.”
But even though there aren’t many Haenyeo left today, the ones who remain are devoted as ever to their work. As one diver put it: “I’ve lived my whole life in the sea. It is my home, my patrimony, my family… When I get up, I see the sea and am delighted. Even lying down I imagine the sound of the sea.”
After learning about the Haenyeo, read about the legendary Amazon women. Then, meet 11 of history’s most fearsome female warriors.
