The Korean Grandmothers Who Dive Deep Without Oxygen Tanks
On South Korea's Jeju Island, the haenyeo are a community of free-diving women who harvest abalone, octopuses, and sea urchins from the ocean floor. Descending up to ten meters without oxygen tanks or modern breathing gear, they hold their breath for minutes using a distinct whistling exhale technique called sumbisori. Remarkably, the majority of active haenyeo today are in their sixties, seventies, and even eighties.
The Physiology and Breath of the Free-Dive
Off the volcanic shores of Jeju Island, the haenyeo harvest marine life entirely on the strength of their own lungs. Diving repeatedly without compressed air or oxygen tanks, these women descend to depths ranging from five to twenty meters, remaining submerged for one to two minutes at a time. The physical demands of this work require precise breath control, rapid adaptation to cold water temperatures, and continuous awareness of depth pressure. Over centuries of practice, the divers developed techniques to maximize underwater time while mitigating the ever-present risks of blackout and hypothermia.
The defining physiological hallmark of the haenyeo is sumbisori, a distinctive breathing technique performed the moment a diver surfaces. Upon breaking the water line, the diver forcefully expels spent air through narrowed lips, immediately drawing in fresh oxygen while equalizing internal lung pressure. This sharp, high-pitched whistle resonates across the water, serving a dual purpose: it rapidly stabilizes the diver's respiratory system and acts as an acoustic signal to nearby divers and boat tenders, indicating that she has surfaced safely.
Traditional Gear and the Wetsuit Transition
For generations, haenyeo equipment was simple and handcrafted. A diver's primary flotation device is the tewak, a rounded buoy traditionally carved from dried gourd and later replaced by styrofoam or rubber. Suspended beneath the tewak is the mangsari, a netted basket used to store harvested sea life such as conch, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and abalone. To pry abalone from rocky crevices, divers carry a flat iron chisel known as a bitchang, along with curved hooks for extracting octopuses and sea urchins.
Until the 1970s, haenyeo dove wearing thin, white cotton garments known as mulsojungi, which provided virtually no thermal insulation against the cold water. Divers could endure only short sessions of one to two hours before needing to warm themselves beside beach bonfires. The introduction of modern neoprene wetsuits in the 1970s radically changed the practice, allowing divers to work for up to five or six hours at a stretch. While wetsuits vastly expanded harvesting efficiency and protected against hypothermia, they also increased physical fatigue and prompted concerns about overharvesting local marine beds.
The Historical Shift to Women Divers
Diving around Jeju was not originally an exclusively female vocation. Historical records from earlier Korean dynasties indicate that male divers, known as pojak, were primarily responsible for harvesting valuable marine products such as abalone. During the Joseon dynasty, however, the central government imposed steep tribute taxes on dried abalone and other luxury sea products. Male divers were frequently subjected to harsh labor demands, heavy taxation, or conscription into military service, prompting many men to flee the island or avoid diving altogether.
By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, diving shifted predominantly to women. Because women were not subjected to the same royal tribute quotas, female harvesting became an essential means of economic survival for Jeju households. Over time, haenyeo became the primary income earners for their families, creating a distinct semi-matriarchal social structure on Jeju that stood in sharp contrast to the strictly patriarchal norms of mainland Korea. Women managed household finances, conducted sea trade, and passed diving knowledge down through matrilineal lines.
Social Hierarchy and Communal Governance
Haenyeo society is organized through village fisheries cooperatives, known as eochon-gye, which maintain strict rules regarding conservation and internal hierarchy. Divers are categorized into three skill levels based on experience, lung capacity, and diving depth: Hagun (the novice or lower tier), Junggun (the middle tier), and Sanggun (the master tier). The Sanggun divers possess the expertise to dive the deepest and navigate hazardous currents, and they frequently serve as mentors and community leaders.
This hierarchical structure is paired with a strong egalitarian commitment to communal welfare. Village cooperatives strictly enforce closed fishing seasons, designated harvest zones, and minimum size limits on catches to prevent depletion of marine resources. The community also reserves specific shallow-water harvesting grounds, sometimes referred to as grandmother seas, where elderly or less physically capable divers can safely harvest without competing against younger, deeper-diving peers. Shared communal work days are routinely organized to clear marine debris, transplant sea vegetation, and maintain local reefs.
Rituals and the Perils of the Sea
Because free-diving involves continuous exposure to unpredictable weather, strong tides, and marine hazards, haenyeo culture is deeply intertwined with maritime shamanism. Divers historically placed their faith in deities of the ocean and wind, most notably Goddess Yeongdeung. In the second lunar month of each year, haenyeo participate in the Yeongdeung-gut ritual, offering prayers, food, and music to welcome the wind goddess, who is believed to sow marine seeds across the sea floor and ensure calm waters and bountiful harvests for the coming year.
Cultural solidarity is also preserved through traditional diving and rowing songs, known as Haenyeo Norae. Sung rhythmically while paddling wooden boats out to sea, these songs describe the hardships of the diving life, the longing for family on shore, and the shared bond among divers facing cold waters together. The communal songs and shamanic rites reinforced collective identity and emotional resilience in the face of frequent maritime accidents.
Demographic Aging and Modern Preservation
During the mid-twentieth century, tens of thousands of active haenyeo operated across Jeju Island and along the southern coastline of the Korean Peninsula. In subsequent decades, the expansion of modern education, mainland industrial employment, and the lucrative growth of Jeju's mandarin orange farming provided younger women with alternative careers that did not require dangerous manual labor at sea. As a result, very few younger women entered the diving profession, leading to a steep demographic decline.
Today, the majority of active haenyeo are over sixty years old, with many continuing to dive well into their seventies and eighties. In recognition of this unique social system, environmental knowledge, and collective heritage, the culture of Jeju haenyeo was inscribed onto the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. Local government initiatives and specialized diving schools have since been established on Jeju to document diving techniques, provide healthcare support to elderly divers, and train prospective apprentices seeking to sustain the tradition.
Key takeaways
•Haenyeo free-dive without oxygen tanks, using the distinctive sumbisori whistling exhale upon surfacing to clear carbon dioxide and stabilize lung pressure.
•The practice transitioned from men to women during the Joseon dynasty due to heavy taxation and military conscription, creating a unique semi-matriarchal economic structure on Jeju Island.
•The divers operate under strict community-governed cooperatives that categorize members by skill (Hagun, Junggun, Sanggun) and enforce conservation rules such as seasonal bans and designated shallow grounds for elderly divers.
•With most active divers now in their sixties, seventies, and eighties, haenyeo culture was inscribed onto UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2016 to support its preservation.