Haenyeo Point and the Final Shore

The “haenyeo point, for women divers” is named after the women who use this stretch of shore. Haenyeo dive without breathing equipment and gather abalone, sea cucumbers, and sea squirts from the seabed. A low utility building by the trail serves as their changing room; nearby, women divers from the Namhang Fisheries Cooperative sort and sell their catch.

Women from Jeju came here by sea. Since the nineteen twenties, Yeongdo served as a stop for groups crossing to the mainland and heading to fisheries along the Korean coast. Some traveled farther on, while others stayed in Busan and took up work in the local waters.

Among those who stayed was Kim Jeong-suk, a diver from Jeju who came to earn money with her twin sons. The children had to be carried on her back during the journey. Kim joined the Namhang Fisheries Cooperative and began working off the shore of Huinnyeoul. In suitable weather, she spent four to five hours in the water. The women divided into teams, brought up abalone, sea cucumbers, and sea squirts, and then sold the catch here as well, by the trail. For Kim, a seasonal journey ended in resettlement: she remained in Busan and lived by her trade.

In a feature on Busan fishing villages published in twenty twenty, Kim was eighty-one years old. She said that she had endured about seventy years of this work and was ready to dive for another ten. At that time, about seventeen active haenyeo remained in the Namhang Fisheries Cooperative.

The changing room stands between the trail and the water, and the fishing grounds begin right off the shore below Huinnyeoul. Even when the women do not go out to sea, the point’s name preserves their precise workplace address.