Clad in a black wet suit and pink face mask, Jin So-hee¡¯s figure cleanly parts the green-blue water until she abruptly dives below the surface, her purple fins disappearing into the deep.

When she resurfaces a minute and a half later, her gloved hands grip six or seven sea cucumbers, their spiked backs glistening in the sun.

¡°This is the biggest one, what do we do?¡± she asks her partner, Woo Jung-min. ¡°The boss is going to be mad. He told us to bring in the really big ones today.¡± Climate change and environmental pollution have made finding enough sea life to harvest more difficult for Jin, Woo, and other South Korean haenyeo, or ¡°sea women.¡±