The Incredible Female Sea-Divers who swim 65ft to the ocean floor

Haenyeo:::Women of the Sea

The Haenyeo are female eco-divers who are main providers for their families in South Korea
If the current rate of decline continues, the Haenyeo are at risk from dying out completely within the next 20 years

You may feel like you are tired after a long day’s work, but imagine diving 65 feet to the ocean floor and back for six hours, with no breathing apparatus for a living.

This is what the inspirational female sea divers in South Korea do on a daily basis, battling exhaustion to provide for their families.

Photographer Hyung S. Kim stumbled upon the brave Haenyeo four years ago, and was inspired to create a project commemorating their beauty and fearlessness for an exhibition called Haenyeo: Women of the Sea.

Haenyeo are a part of Korea’s unique indigenous cultural heritage, with a history dating back to 1105.

Numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years, with 14,000 haenyeo in the 1970s being reduced to only 4,000 nowadays.

Incredibly over half of the female divers are 70 years old, while the eldest woman is 90.

Sadly, if the current rate of decline continues, the Haenyeo are at risk from dying out completely within the next 20 years and Kim wanted to create the exhibition to celebrate their impressive lives.

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