South Korea's Female Free Divers May Have Evolved to Thrive Underwater, Study Finds

The Haenyeo, a group of skilled divers on Jeju Island, plunge beneath the ocean’s surface without any breathing equipment, thanks to a combination of their training and genetics
Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor

May 23, 2025 4:50 p.m.



A group of female South Korean free divers on Jeju Island, known as the Haenyeo, exit the water after catching marine snails in November 2015. Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images


On Jeju Island, 50 miles south of the Korean peninsula, senior women regularly dive up to 60 feet beneath the ocean’s surface. They collect sea urchins, sea snails called abalone and other food—and they do it all without breathing equipment.

These divers are known as the Haenyeo, or “women of the sea.” Trained from a young age, they plunge into cold ocean water year-round, throughout their lives.

“They dive throughout their whole pregnancy,” Diana Aguilar-Gómez, a geneticist at the University of California, Los Angeles, tells NPR’s Ari Daniel. She describes stories of women diving until shortly before giving birth, then returning to the water just days later.

Today, however, the practice is dwindling, and the current average age of the Haenyeo is about 70 years old. Many of the divers consider themselves to be the last of their kind.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/south-koreas-female-free-divers-may-have-evolved-to-thrive-underwater-study-finds-180986673/