Haenyeo, meaning "women of the sea" in Korean, are a dwindling group of mostly older, female divers who live and work on South Korea's Jeju Island harvesting seafood from the ocean. These older Korean women risk their lives each day harvesting sea snails and sea urchins to support their children and families. One haenyeo and restaurateur, Nam Young Kim, has been diving for over 40 years. At her restaurant, Gapadosiktak, she prepares some of the highest quality uni and abalone, or sea snails, for people in Seogwipo who have never tried them before.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00The sound of whistling is the sound of protecting me.
00:04The seagulls are giving up their lives for me today
00:08I'm going for my children and family who are behind me.
00:22The seagulls are really hard
00:24I'm going to catch it from the sea.
00:30I'm going to eat it.
00:36Wow
00:48I have to eat it with my legs because I have a cramp in my leg.
00:52So when the legs are hurt, they get a cramp.
00:57It's okay on the ground, but in the water, it's a big deal if you hit your legs.
01:10Oh, there's a seagull.
01:17I have to wear clothes to go to the sea and work, so I'm going to wear rubber clothes.
01:22Let's go
01:25I wear rubber clothes so that I don't get cold in the sea.
01:32When the temperature in the sea goes down and it's too cold, I wear thick clothes.
01:38For example, this is 3mm, but there are 4mm and 5mm, and there is a huge difference between 1mm and 2mm.
01:47So I wear rubber clothes, but it's different from working.
01:55I wear rubber clothes a lot in shallow places.
02:02I wear it when I catch abalone.
02:06When I catch a conch, I only have three in my hand.
02:13When I catch a conch, I only have three in my hand.
02:18Why did you put it in here?
02:21Oh, it's a rubber.
02:25It's a rubber that blocks the water in my ears.
02:38I can't walk over there.
02:40Don't walk over there. If you go with me, you can rest here.
02:44No, I can't rest.
02:45No, you can rest here. It's comfortable here.
02:50Oh, you don't listen to me.
02:55Aunt
02:59I told the captain not to do it separately.
03:06It could be dangerous.
03:11I've been doing this for 40 years.
03:17It's been 10 years since I learned how to do it.
03:24When I go to the sea, there's a treasure chest.
03:29It's my refrigerator.
03:33I don't need a boss.
03:39I can go to the sea whenever I want.
03:50The sound of the whistle protects me.
03:54It's not a whistle. It's a secret sound.
03:58It's a secret sound that I make when I go down and work hard.
04:06If there's no secret sound, I don't know why there's no secret sound.
04:12My friends are worried about me.
04:21That's why I make a secret sound.
04:44The biggest problem is safety.
04:47It's a matter of life and death.
04:51If you can't do what the king tells you to do, you'll do it tomorrow.
04:55I heard you almost lost your life in the meantime.
05:00Yes.
05:02I was young and greedy.
05:08When I went down to the mountain, the water was boiling.
05:16I went down to see if there was abalone.
05:20When I stepped on the abalone, the water came up.
05:27I couldn't go up because of the sunlight.
05:34At that moment, I felt my body.
05:39At that moment, 50,000 thoughts came to me.
05:45I thought I was going to die.
05:49At that moment, I tried to relax.
05:54I hit the abalone gently.
05:57Then my body went up.
06:04It's a job that comes and goes between life and death.
06:15What can't you do when you breathe?
06:18What can't you do when you breathe?
06:35If it's heavy, I think it's alive.
06:39I think it's alive.
06:41I'm going to do a little more.
06:43Greed
06:48One, two, three.
06:52After I know the process of bringing it and working on it,
07:05I'm working on peeling the sea urchin I caught.
07:12Sea urchin is the best in the country.
07:18It's not bitter, it's sweet, and it's very fragrant.
07:23You have to be careful, but be careful not to get sunlight.
07:28Don't get wet.
07:32If you touch the sun, the sea urchin will melt.
07:36The sea urchin will melt and it won't be commercialized.
07:44If you can use a knife, use a small one.
07:47You have to press it with your black hand.
07:50If you do this, you'll get five.
07:56The reason I do this one by one is because
07:59If you peel it wrong, the sea urchin will be sunburned.
08:05Each person uses it, but they sell it.
08:15It's a spoon, but it's unique.
08:20You have to peel it.
08:29It's not a problem because I've scratched it a lot.
08:32There's a difference in flesh.
08:44Oh, there's a factory here, too.
08:48Oh, that's what we worked on today.
08:54I'm going to measure it in kilos.
09:10I'm going to catch the last sea urchin and take it to the restaurant.
09:19Here's another one.
09:22I'll take it out. You come out.
09:25I can't. I can't.
09:40I held my breath and caught it.
09:53I'm going to catch the last sea urchin and take it to the restaurant.
10:06This is our restaurant.
10:11I caught it today and brought it.
10:18There's a horn.
10:21Jeju Island's conch has a horn.
10:27So this sea urchin is delicious.
10:33What are you going to do?
10:42It's weak.
10:56Let's go in.
11:06It's a restaurant that sells food.
11:10If you can't eat abalone, conch, or sea urchin, come to Seogwipo.
11:20It's a clean area in Gapado.
11:25It's an area that hasn't been developed before.
11:30One living thing is probably the best in Korea.
11:35Sea urchin is the best.
11:40Of course, you can sell it to other people.
11:43It's my thought and my heart that I cook and come to the restaurant and make it delicious.
11:54I feel proud and good when I cook like this.
12:04I'm going to make sea urchin in Gapado.
12:09Put the sea urchin in the refrigerator and put it in a small refrigerator.
12:15If you don't, you have to put it in the freezer and use it.
12:22Sea urchin is famous for various sea urchin soup.
12:31I'm going to make sea urchin bibimbap.
12:40I'm going to make it as big as I can.
12:44The more I do it, the more it stretches.
13:02I think sea urchins are better than any doctor or politician in the world.
13:15Sea urchins are aging, so I think we need to preserve them well.
13:26There's a lot of work to do.
13:30When tourists buy sea urchins, they rely on the life and death of the sea urchins.
13:46When you go to the sea, don't think it's expensive.
13:57Sea urchins are hard to catch, but those who are healthy will feel great.
14:11Especially 70 to 80-year-old grandmothers live like that.
14:18Are you happy now?
14:20Yes, I'm happy when I make sea urchins.