Jeju-do is the largest of Korean islands and lies between Korea and Japan. There, for hundreds of years, women dive without breathing apparatus, to the ocean floor and collect shellfish, octopus, and ...

A couple of years ago, Melissa Ilardo found herself aboard a motorboat traversing the ocean around Jeju Island, which sits some 50 or 60 miles off the coast of South Korea. Before the vessel had even ...

An island 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula is home to a unique and celebrated community of women: the Haenyeo. These women dive year-round off Jeju Island, ...

A group of women on South Korea's largest island, Jeju, follow a unique tradition to put food on the table: They freedive to depths of nearly 33 feet (10 meters) without using any special equipment.

Researchers tracked the natural diving behavior and physiology of seven Haenyeo, aged 62 to 80, as they harvested sea urchins. Researchers used an instrument designed to measure the behavior and ...

Known as “haenyeo” or “sea women” in Korean, these women can free-dive as deep as 10m and stay underwater for up to two ...