The first harvest of Haenyeo
Catching sea urchin as baby Haenyeo
I went to Seoul for my friend's wedding, and I arrived at Jeju between Friday night and Saturday, at that time I moved from Jeju-si to SeoKwipo-si. So I went to Haenyeo school with a tired body. I was sorry that I couldn't take a picture as the battery of Gopro was also discharged for a week.
Dancing the Cha-Cha at Haenyeo school
Today to my surprise, we warmed up in a dancing the cha-cha class. A student who could play dance sports prepared for a dancing the cha-cha class. She told us to shake our butts. How do I shake my butt?! But we all were able to warm up pleasantly laughing with music. Not getting much sleep, I was tired of moving from Seoul to Jeju, moving from Jeju to Seokwipo, moving luggage from the first floor to fifth floork, but where did that fatigue go? I didn't want to go to school as much as I've never won a perfect attendance award(개근상) in school days. But I'm 100% in Haenyeo school. This is a school I want to keep going to.
Relay - Kicks
We played a relay-kicks not a relay-run. It's another sport after tug-of-war last week. The baton was Taewak fixed with the flags of each group. It's important unconditionally to move slowly in free diving, but relay-kicks!
As the Taewak was more resistant to sea water than I thought, it's a lot harder to kick. Having a try to bring the Taewak almost to my head goes a lot more forward. If the baton were a real relay baton not Taewak, I could go much faster to dive into the water. Having never missed the first place in a relay from elementary school to high school, even medical school, I kicked my heart to burst. Even if I bited the snorkel, I didn't feel like I was breathing. It was a different breathing problem than running. Fortunately my group 5 is number one!
Catching sea urchin : The first harvest of baby Haenyeo
The sea urchin season has begun. It's time for Haenyeo around Jeju island to catch sea urchins in the sea. The sea where Haenyeo-s enter is different, but they collect seafood from the sea around the same time of nature. There are strict collection periods and closed periods, and according to the established protocol and law they start collecting and finish. How mysterious! Haenyeo-s of Kui-duk-2-ri started collecting sea urchin from June 15th. Usually they collect from 1 tide time (1물, 1mul) to 6 tide time (6물, 6mul), and after taking a week's holiday they collect again for 6 days. They said that it's slightly late because of COVID-19 vaccination. According to the sea urchin season, the student of Haenyeo school started collecting them, too. I thanked for collecting them formally and with permission.
Student's free catching sea urchins started until Haenyeo teachers came. If 50 students get in the water all at once and scramble, the water is getting cloudy soon and they have poor vision. Therefore, it's hard to see sea urchins when we look down from the surface breathing with snorkels. Unconditionally we have to dive in and closer to see them. Each of us is scattered and diving hard.
The rubber band of Ho-maeng-yi was broken three times. I said that it broke so easily that I would change it to something else. But Haenyeo said that it's better to break the rubber band of Ho-maeng-yi. When the Ho-maeng-yi hung on the wrist caught in the rock and didn't fall off, if it is not the kind of string that breaks off with force, we could be in danger. Therefore we have to use a rubber band to hang on a Ho-maeng-yi , not plastic strap, Haenyeo said.
There being a lot of sea urchins stuck between rocks and rocks, it's not easy to pick out them with Ho-maeng-yi while doing so. If I pierce it, it's orange bare skin is preading and then a shoal of fish is swarming around and is preying. You guys are having a party today!
At first I could only pick one or two sea urchins, and I just got used to it. I learned the know-how, and warming up I could hold my breath longer. As I go deeper and deeper, there are more sea urchins. Going into the water they are everywhere between rocks! Surely If I can hold my breath for a long time, I can take out three or four sea urchins. As it's fun to pick them, I collected small ones, but baby urchins were all collected and sent back to sea. The heavier the net Mang-sa-ri is, the more exciting it is.
To bring sea urchins well, there is a rock flipping technique
To bring sea urchins well, there is a rock flipping technique. If the rocks are turned upside down, sea urchins are attached to the bottom of the rock. Flipping rocks, I picked up easily at once the sea urchins hanging from the rocks. That excitement! What an exciting thing in the world! It's rather hard to flip rocks, but I was so excited that I kept flipping them. While flipping, I became to have an eye to differ rocks flipped by someone from rocks not yet done. Again while searching, I got used to knowing where there are many sea urchins and where there are few. Having been working for decades like this, Haenyeo-s says that they know everything of the sea field. I can see it. How well do they know? The wisdom in their brains, the knowledge of the sea field, and the skill of their working in the sea must be a heritage to preserve. Those are the culture passed down from Haenyeo to Haenyeo.
Getting used to it a little bit, I was so funny and excited as I brought up a few sea urchins at a time and one or two turban shells. Free sea urchin collecting was over, and after gathering and resting for a while we went into the sea with Haenyeo teachers. It would be time to ask what didn't work out while catching sea urchins, but I was too excited to hear her wisdom of it. Because I loved catching them, I dived continuously to find my spot. I thought I could go on catching them for a couple of hours it was that much fun.
If someone just pass by because she can't see it from the surface, she would miss a good spot. I can't see anything from the top like this, but if I dive in and look at, there are a lot!
It's harder to peel sea urchins than to catch them
When I finished collecting sea urchins and came ashore, we've got a mountain of sea urchins. But there are still sea urchins left. How many sea urchins are there on earth?!
Students taking the shell off, it's harder to peel them than to catch them. How much the back must hurt. How hard it is! Haenyeo-s peel sea urchins sitting down together on the day of catching them. They say that they collect only orange flesh (bare skin) of sea urchin and sell for 110,000 won a kilogram. It seems to be too little at the cost of their labor. How is this price set? I wish that Haenyeo-s catch sea urchins and sell them as they are, and I wish that sea urchins would have to be trimed at the sushi restaurant. Our Haenyeo are really hard T.T
I brought some sea urchins caught, and I peeled the shell and ate them at home. To peel sea urchins I bought 3M gloves at the convenience store, and I fleshed out using crab meat fork from Seoul home. It's not easy to spread sea urchins. And I made sea urchin Bibimbap, and it was so delicious! When I peeled them, I did it roughly, I chewed the shell when eating. When eating sea urchin Bibimbap sold in a reastaurant, I have never chewed the shell. I think Haenyeo must have trimed them very cleanly and sold them. Eating it, I felt grateful for the hard work of the Haenyeo. I think I can hear the Haenyeo "Don't think sea urchin is expensive~"
#JeJu_Hansupul_Haenyeo_school #Jeju_Haenyeo_school #Hansupul_Haenyeo_school
#Hansupul #Haenyeo_school #Haenyeo
#UNESCO #Jeju_Haenyeo_culture #Jeju_Haenyeo #Jeju #Jejudo #Jeju_island
#Korea #Korea_jeju #Korea_haenyeo #Korea_haenyeo_school
#how_to_enter_haenyeo_school
#to_become_Haenyeo #how_to_become_Haenyeo
#free_diving #freediving #free_diver #freediver
#diving_medicine #diaphragm_contraction #equalizing
#sea_flow #tidal_current #tide #tide_time
#Tewak #Haenyeo_equipment
#Haenyeo_school_class #Haenyeo_class #Haenyeo_dive #Haenyeo_swimming #Haenyeo_finning #duck_dive #mural_painting
#Sea_urchin #octopus #sea_hare
#Tug_of_war_in_the_water #mul_Jil #Haenyeo_muljil
https://brunch.co.kr/magazine/women-haenyeo
