[Eco-Interview] “My uncles were BTS for me” Young Jeju Hae-nyeo

 Badang. The name for the sea in the Jeju dialect. ‘Jeju Badang‘ still was beautiful. Jeju Island is a picturesque island situated in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. From the top of the Iho breakwater, the sunlight reflected off the blue sea and glistened like piano keys.

There were already several Hae-nyeo on the sea. Hae-nyeo are female divers in the South Korean province of Jeju. 

Their livelihood consists of harvesting a variety of mollusks, seaweed, and other sea life from the ocean. A voice broke through the hissing sound of the maidens’ breathing.

“You must be the journalist we are interviewing today. I am on my way.”

 She approached the seawall with a heavy Tewak fishnet in her hands. Tewak is a material tool that allows Hae-nyeo to take a break from the water. A fishnet is attached to the teawak to hold the seafood they catch during the day.

“Have you caught many, haven’t you?”

 “It’s down a lot.”

 Mrs. Yoo-Jung LEE, said.

 Could climate change influence it? The anticipation of hearing first-hand accounts gripped me.

I visited the area where the women arranged their work and interviewed her.

I was inquisitive about her journey to arrive at the sea.

 “My uncles were BTS for me”

 She is a native of Jeju. Moreover, she is the daughter of a Jeju fisherman. 

Jeju Badang. Especially the Iho beach, where she currently works, was her playground and home.

She recalls her childhood memories of the Jeju Sea.

 “When I heard my father’s boat, I would run out and say, ‘My father is here,’ and my uncles(Hae-nyeo) would tie up the boat, and my uncles would give me a conch and pat my head, saying you were good. They were like rich uncles then.”

 In Jeju, close female elders are known as an uncle.

 The seamaids who lavished him with costly seafood must have resembled Warren Buffett in the eyes of a young girl.

She naturally dreamed of becoming one. However, as she matured, she departed from that aspiration.

After completing her high school education on Jeju Island, she aspired to pursue a career in the field of music. Mrs. LEE was interested in learning drumming, but the instrument she found was the tuba. Future Hae-nyeo was hoping to continue with music, but due to financial constraints, in fine, she chose Chinese as her major. Another step away from her dream.

“I majored in Chinese because of Jeju’s image as a tourist city, but I wanted to go out into the big world, so I went to Seoul right after graduation. There are numerous delicious foods to eat in Seoul.

So I made money with the intention of being successful and bringing my parents here so they could eat a lot of good things.”

The life in Seoul was full of adventures, but sometimes she felt empty. Mrs Lee questioned what she should do next, and with that in mind, she decided to return to Jeju. She was in her mid-20s.

However, she was stuck. ‘What should I do?’

“I kept looking at the Jeju Sea, wondering what I should do next. Then I realized, “What was I doing with this precious sea, and why was I wandering around like this?”

As she was looking towards the sea, her uncles were approaching the breakwater with collected seafood. She saw the halo behind them, and she thought they looked like BTS. At that moment, her new life page was flipped. She immediately began researching ways to become a Hae-nyeo.

But the journey to becoming a Hae-nyeo was not an easy one. Initially, she had to persuade her parents, who were familiar with the Jeju sea. Her father was bitter that his beautiful daughter, who had worked well in Seoul, suddenly decided to become a Hae-nyeo.

“My father told me that it is not necessary for you to be a grand person. I just want you to not go to sea.”

As a man who worked at sea, he knew the drudgery all too well to work there.

“Determined to protect her uncles by becoming a professional hea-neyo”

Indeed, she was unable to swim. However, she was determined to become a proficient Hae-nyeo and safeguard her uncles. This Han-neyo candidate trained hard with friends who were in the Korea Navy SEALs to become certified in skin scuba diving and lifeguarding.

“I learned skin scuba professionally in order to teach my uncles how to do it safely and scientifically.”

 “In the past, it was believed that the capacity of Hae-nyeo was born. If one were to enter deep water and experience a rupture of the eardrums, it would be considered a low-grade hae-neyo and deemed unsuitable for swim to deep sea. But now that it has been scientifically proven that you can go deeper by equalizing, I became certified as a skinscuba and freediving instructor to tell my uncles.”

“I feel upset for people who come to Hae-nyeo school just for showing” : Sharing Hae-nyeo daily life by Instagram

To become a Hae-nyeo, she graduated from a Hae-nyeo school. Just because you go to a school doesn’t mean you’re a Hae-nyeo. Everyone must agree that a candidate should become a Hae-nyeo. If even one person does not agree, you cannot become a Hae-nyeo, and you must join a fishing community and become a member of a collective before you can begin your work as a Hae-nyeo.

The process does not end when you start your career as a Hae-nyeo. The fishing organization will conduct a thorough investigation to ascertain the individual’s level of commitment.

 Still, this young Hae-nyeo points out that many people come to Hae-nyeo just for amusement.

 “It’s so funny to be a Hae-nyeo . It’s a good contents. Whenever I hear that word, it makes me feel bad, especially when people come to Hae-nyeo School just to get the title of Hae-nyeo .

 It is a warning to those who solely participate to display, not to comprehend the significance of Hae-nyeo in itself.

At the same time, she is contributing to the wider recognition of Hae-nyeo . She films the everyday life of a Hae-nyeo and shares it on her Instagram, sometimes in a funny way, sometimes with serious issues.

“My universe revolves around diversity: I aim to promote awareness of environmental issues and assist young individuals in preserving traditional culture, and I am currently pursuing a degree in art.

I would like to document the beautiful Jeju Sea and my uncles that I see all the time with my paintings and express them in my own way.”

She asserts that if I had drawn a depiction of Jeju Badang as it appeared five years ago, it would have served as a record that I could compare to the present sea, which is changing due to the climate crisis.

 Yes! She has witnessed the transformation of Jeju’s ocean daily. The clean Jeju Sea. What did she feel the Jeju Sea was like? To be continued next article.

Eco-journaliste KOO, contact : ecopresso23@ecopresso.info