Off the coast of Jeju Island, 60 miles south of mainland Korea, a community of women divers from age 30 to 80 don wetsuits and goggles and plunge into the unpredictable waters. Braving fast-moving ...

On the windswept shores of this volcanic island, three women ready themselves for another dive into the cold sea. Lee Bok-soo ...

Imprints of evolution can be seen among the Haenyeo of South Korea. After generations of foraging for food on the seabed, these all-women divers have fostered several genetic adaptations that allow ...

Free-diving haenyeo Koh Bok-im, 73, looks up as she approaches the boat in the waters off Chagwi Island near Jeju Island. Photo © Hyungwon Kang On Jeju, Korea’s ...

Often likened to mermaids in media reports and popular culture, South Korea’s famed Haenyeo (“sea women”) spend much of the day underwater, diving without scuba gear to collect abalone, octopus, kelp ...

The Haenyeo women who dive deep into the East China Sea to harvest sea urchins and shellfish spend the most time underwater of any humans ever studied — one to five hours a day, researchers report ...

They dive for up to four minutes without oxygen, collecting rare marine animals. Their profession is in danger of dying out, but there is hope. The haenyeo are South Korean «women of the sea» who ...

After spending several days with the Haenyeo, a group of women on South Korea’s Jeju Island renowned for harvesting seafood from the ocean floor without scuba gear, photographer Peter Ash Lee said one ...

The Jeju Haenyeo exhibition opened Monday at Katara Cultural Village, featuring 32 artworks that highlight the remarkable similarities between Qatar’s pearl divers and South Korea’s Jeju Haenyeo women ...

Dear readers. I want you to do something with me. Take three long breaths—as deep as you can. Now hold it for two minutes! How long did you hold? I only survived one minute and 23 seconds. And I'm ...