[This article is written by a JDC Junior Journalist. The JDC Junior Journalist program is an educational project sponsored by Jeju Free International City Development Corporation (JDC). JDC Junior Journalist articles are only briefly edited by mentors before publishing.]

When you think about Jeju, there are a lot of things that come to mind, such as Jeju oranges, Halla Mountain, and Jeju dialect. However, there is a job that also represents Jeju. One where female divers get into the sea without any equipment and gather seafood to support their families. These women are the haenyeo.

The haenyeo don’t have any special abilities for swimming and diving, but their mental strength and responsibility as mothers to support their family are what make them unique. Park Su Lan, 72, has been a haenyeo for 55 years. When she was young she learned how to swim by herself and later became a haenyeo. Recently, she has been doing performances at Jeju’s Aqua Planet on how haenyeo gather seafood. “Even though I felt ashamed about being a haenyeo in the past, today I think being a haenyeo is good and honorable as many people have come to know about us by our performances and through other ways,” she said.

Not only Jeju locals are paying attention to the haenyeo. Wanda Wynn, an American living in Jeju attended and graduated from the Jeju Hansupul Haenyeo School. “I grew up in a small town in Southern America, and a large part of my childhood was spent in a fishing village called Mayport,” she said. “When I began researching Jeju, the first thing that I heard about or read about was the haenyeo, and I was automatically drawn to that culture. I wanted to know more about it.” Wynn said the biggest lesson during her course at haenyeo school was feeling a human connection. “Even though I look different and I speak a different language from the women I was with in haenyeo school, we really are just the same. We’re human beings and we’re mothers,” she said. “We all want to take care of our family.”

Unfortunately, today there are not many haenyeo left in Jeju. “Almost 4700 females with the average age of 69 are working as haenyeo today,” said Lee Han Yeong, representative of the Haenyeo Culture Preservation Institute. “Our organization exists for researching and passing the tradition of haenyeo on to the next generation,” he said. Lee emphasized that the most important way to preserve the haenyeo culture is by making people love and be interested in the haenyeo. He also encouraged Jeju locals to consider becoming haenyeo as it would be easier for them than Koreans who live in other parts of the country. “There are property boundaries for gathering seafood and doing haenyeo work in each part of the sea. In order to respect the regulations, people should live in a fishing village that owns the property. So, it’s easier for Jeju locals to become a haenyeo than people who come from other regions,” he said.

Jeju’s haenyeo work hard and face many dangers in the sea. More people should know about the haenyeo’s responsibility and sacrifice in taking care of their family out of love. Therefore, Jeju people should try to learn and pay attention to the haenyeo. Then, we can appreciate them, our mothers of the sea.

If you want to learn more about Jeju’s haenyeo, visit the Jeju Haenyeo Museum, www.haenyeo.go.kr or call 064-782-9898.