“She’s late,” says a fellow patron when she notices me staring. “All the other haenyeo have already finished their diving and delivered their catch.”
Like their more famous Jeju Island counterparts, Busan’s haenyeo are “mermaids” who support their families by diving for seafood without the use of any particular tools or artificial breathing aids.
The subject of many documentaries, they’re a dying breed — an estimated 20,000 haenyeo still work in South Korea — due to the intense physical difficulties of the job.
While most haenyeo usually dive about five meters and stay underwater for 30-second intervals, many are capable of diving as deep as 20 meters and staying underwater for as long as two minutes.
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That’s when businessmen from nearby towns flock to the village for lunch, along with the local ajumma (older Korean women) who gather here to dish the latest gossip.
Do foreign visitors ever come? I ask.
“We get occasional international tourists who come just to see the village, but they can’t really stomach the seafood,” says Choi. “The porridge, maybe.”
Jeong-hye Jip, 133 Yeonhwari Village, Kijanggun, Busan, South Korea
