In Geoje, South Korea, Jin So-hee wears a wet suit and grips a couple of cucumbers. Jin’s partner, Woo Jung-Min says climate change has had a negative effect on finding sea life to harvest.
Both women are known as haenyeo, sea women. So-Hee, 28, swims in the Geoje Island collecting seaweed and conches by hand to sell at the markets.
Due to the warmer waters, marine habitats are getting killed off and many seaweed forests are disappearing. She said, “I’m worried this job will change drastically or even disappear because of climate change.” (JapanTimes).
Both Soo-Hee and Jung-Min have to dive deep to find seaweed in order to harvest for food.
WJPS staff member Ms. Cajas said, “For too long, climate change has played a pivotal role in our everchanging environment. Jin and Woo’s story is only a fraction of many first-hand accounts of the damaging effects climate change has done to our undersea habitat.”
WJPS junior Angelina Loiacono said, “I am very surprised and proud of the ‘sea women’ working in this profession. I think it empowers women by showing that fishing and marine exploration is not only for men.”
“Haenyeo” by Baraka50 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
