‘Sea women’ fear for their trade

Don’t hurt the precious ocean: Kim speaks as signs denouncing Japan’s plan to release treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean are seen in Busan, South Korea. — Reuters

The ocean is like a “mother’s embrace”, says Kim Jung-ja, a South Korean who free-dives without oxygen, wearing a black wet suit, mask and fins to pick by hand abalone, sea cucumber and other marine life that she takes to market.

Now she wonders whether the traditional occupation she has pursued for more than 60 years, as one of the haenyeo, or “sea women”, will change forever, after Japan began discharging into the Pacific radioactive water from its Fukushima nuclear plant.