From an interview conducted by Youngmi Mayer with Jung Won Oh, Ko Jun Ja, and Mun Yeon Ok, female divers on Korea’s Jeju Island, published in Lucky Peach: The Gender Issue. Haenyo gather shellfish, ...

A group of women around 70 years old laugh and sing on a beach in Jeju, an island off South Korea, preparing to spend the day diving for shellfish. Moments later, they’ll plunge into frigid waters as ...

Haenyo—perhaps the closest thing the world has to real-life mermaids—are a dwindling group of women divers, or "sea women," who exist in Korea. They free-dive for sea flora and mollusks, traditionally ...