How South Korea’s ‘real-life mermaids’ made her want to learn to swim

What if somebody informed you mermaids have been actual?

Overlook the fish tails, we imply ladies able to holding their breath for minutes on finish as they dive beneath the ocean a number of hundred occasions a day.

These are the haenyeo divers of South Korea, a neighborhood of girls from Jeju Island who’ve been free-diving (with out oxygen) to reap seafood for hundreds of years.

Now, with most of them of their 60s, 70s and 80s, their traditions and lifestyle are at risk as fewer youthful ladies take up the career, and with the ocean doubtlessly altering past recognition.

It’s these info that prompted US-Korean film-maker Sue Kim to crew up with feminine training advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafazai to share their story with the world.

The daughter of Korean immigrants, US-born Kim first got here throughout the haenyeo when she was a toddler, holidaying in South Korea.

“I used to be so struck by them for a similar causes that you simply see within the movie – they have been so extremely daring and vibrant and assured. They have been additionally so loud… preventing and laughing, and so they simply gave off this very large vitality and occupied their area so unapologetically,” says Lee.

“I simply fell in love with that complete vibe and massive vitality after I was a bit of woman. And so I grew up staying fascinated with them. They have been a model of Korean womanhood that I used to be impressed by and needed to emulate,” she provides.

“I used to be so shocked that I didn’t know in regards to the haenyeo, like so many individuals didn’t know, I mentioned sure right away,” explains Malala, who was a producer on the movie.

“The story actually took on an urgency about 10 years in the past after I discovered that this was in all probability the final technology of the haenyeo,” explains Lee. “It turned extra of an pressing mandate to verify somebody documented… whereas we nonetheless had them and whereas they might nonetheless inform us their very own story in their very own phrases.”

The movie follows the ladies going about their gruelling work in the course of the harvest season and examines the challenges they face each out and in of the water.

They head out to dive at 6am each day. They maintain their breath for a few minutes, come again as much as the floor and return down once more – between 100 and 300 occasions a session.

Simply think about the health ranges. They harvest for 4 hours after which spend one other three or 4 shelling and making ready their catch.

There are numerous theories as to why ladies started to take over this historically male job so a few years in the past. The Visit Jeju website states that the variety of males was low total within the inhabitants attributable to a excessive portion of them dying on the tough seas whereas boat fishing.

Because of this, there weren’t many males to reap the ocean, so ladies progressively took over the job.

That is the primary main documentary in regards to the haenyeo and Kim says it was onerous to achieve entry.

“The haenyeo communities, they’re very insular,” she explains.

“They’re rural communities that stay in fishing villages. They do not work together with the cities of Jeju a lot.”

Kim discovered a researcher who had a historical past with NGOs and had contacts locally.

“So this girl… launched us, then I went down and I principally spent two weeks with… the Haenyeo communities and actually gaining their belief. And I did that by largely listening.

“They really needed to speak about all of the issues that have been taking place to them.

“They needed to speak about the truth that they felt that they have been on the verge of extinction. They needed to speak about what was taking place to the ocean that no-one appeared to find out about or care about.”

Kim says she needed to reassure the ladies that she would not stereotype them or pity them for working into previous age.

“They love working! They assume they’re so robust and empowered by doing so.”

Kim informed them she would present them of their “true energy.”

“‘I promise I cannot tackle this unhappy grandma trope as a result of that’s not how I see you, I see you as heroes’,” she defined to the group.

“After that, we turned a household.”

The dangers are large. There is no such thing as a insurance coverage obtainable for the job, because it’s too harmful. And now the ocean – and the ladies’s livelihood – is beneath risk.

World warming is leading to much less sea life, notably in shallow water; diving deeper is harder with out oxygen.

A lot of the movie focuses on the ladies’s protests towards the radioactive water from Japan’s Fukishima plant being discharged into the ocean (Jeju borders Japan), which takes one of many haeneyeos, Quickly Deok Jang, on to the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The message from specialists is, overwhelmingly, that the discharge is protected and it bought the inexperienced gentle from the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company – however not all scientists agree on the impression it should have.

Whereas the haenyeo do harvest marine life, there are rules in place about after they’re allowed to reap sure seafood, which helps to guard the ecosystem.

Another excuse they do not use oxygen tanks is as a result of “they consider that by holding their breath, that can permit them the pure quantity of marine life that they need to harvest”, Kim explains, which helps keep away from overfishing.

Maybe the larger risk although, is from inside, with fewer youthful ladies selecting to pursue this tough career.

A coaching faculty was arrange within the early 2000s to attempt to stem the dwindling numbers however solely 5% of these attending go on to change into haenyeos.

All isn’t misplaced although. The movie introduces us to 2 younger ladies from one other island who’ve discovered a following on social media and level out the versatile hours the job can supply round household life. One in all them needed to study to swim on the age of 30 to do the job.

The older ladies meet with them for festivals and protests – they name them “their infants” whereas they’re named “aunties” in return.

Yousafzai is impressed: “Once I have a look at the haenyeo and the way they work collectively, it simply jogs my memory of the collective work that girls are doing in every single place else, together with the advocacy that Afghan girl are doing to boost consciousness of the systematic oppression they’re dealing with.”

“When a woman is watching this documentary, I would like her to consider in herself and realise that she will do something. She will keep beneath the water for 2 to 3 minutes with out oxygen,” she says. “And naturally I nonetheless must take some swimming courses to discover ways to swim! I’m at level zero, nevertheless it has impressed me to think about swimming.”

The Final of the Sea Ladies is out there on Apple TV+ from 11 October 2024.