JEJU ISLAND, Apr 27 (IPS) – Forward of the tenth Our Ocean Convention, with the theme “Our Ocean, Our Motion,” comes a world name to guard the world’s oceans.
The convention begins tomorrow (April 28) and ends on Wednesday and takes place in Busan, Korea.
On Jeju Island, located south of the Korean Peninsula and west of southern Japan, a neighborhood of conventional girls divers protects an ocean in disaster.
Haenyeo are extremely expert feminine divers who dive to important depths of as much as 15 meters, usually with out the help of oxygen tanks or different respiratory tools, and might maintain their breath for prolonged intervals of as much as 45 minutes. They use a particular whistling sound, sumbi sori, when resurfacing to clear their lungs of carbon dioxide.
“Among the girls are of their 80s. We dive till we will not transfer. I’m 69 years outdated. Till 5 years in the past, when my daughter turned a haenyeo, I used to be the youngest diver for 45 years. The oldest diver alive is 95 years outdated. She retired at 90 years. My mom was a diver too,” says Chunsuk Son, in Iho-dong village in Jeju Island.
Jeju Island is surrounded by each sea and ocean, as it’s positioned within the East China Sea and likewise faces the Pacific Ocean to the south. The island is within the Korea Strait, surrounded by the Yellow Sea and the East/Japan Sea. Jeju Island is a singular location the place the northern and southern distributional limits meet, as all species have restricted ecological distributions.
Myeonghyo Ko, her daughter, a diver, and a college graduate, says haenyeo have intensive information of the ocean’s topography, marine life, and climate patterns that assist them select the most effective time and places for diving to gather seafood like abalone, sea urchins, and seaweed whereas avoiding overfishing, respecting seasonal restrictions, and using conventional ecological information to guard the ocean.
The tradition of Jeju Haenyeo is acknowledged by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. On the tenth anniversary of the Our Ocean Convention underneath the theme ‘Our Ocean, Our Motion’, such actions from the neighborhood, governments, worldwide organizations, main firms, NGOs, and academia might be highlighted and promoted in the direction of sustainable oceans.
Sanghoon Yoon, knowledgeable advisor at Paran Ocean Citizen Science Centre, an NGO based for residents to analysis and collect information for eco-diversity, says local weather change is altering Jeju’s aquatic ecosystem “as species we now have not seen earlier than are showing to exchange native species. As an illustration, tropical fish and colourful corals are showing in Jeju waters instead of the native conch, brown algae, and abalone.”
“One-third of Jeju Ocean is devastated. It’s not local weather change however a local weather disaster. However it’s for us to essentially resolve whether or not it is a disaster or an opportunity to revive and defend.”
As world warming takes a toll on the ecosystems of Korea’s seas, skilled divers say that barely over a decade in the past, coral reefs and sea anemones, whose pure habitat is within the subtropical waters, began showing within the waters off the coast of Korea’s southern Jeju Island.
Sanghoon says the “common sea temperature of a subtropical ocean is eighteen to twenty levels Celsius. Even in comparison with the typical change of the local weather, the temperature of the Jeju Ocean is rising 2.5 instances. There’s new sea life as others, such because the seaweed forest, disappear.”
In opposition to this backdrop, a long time of harvesting the seas have disrupted the fragile stability of marine ecosystems. Almost 90 p.c of worldwide marine fish shares are totally exploited or overfished. And even these just like the haenyeo, whose sea harvesting practices are sustainable, are additionally lowering.
Ko, Seung-chul, the pinnacle of Beophwan Haenyeo Faculty and chairperson of the fishing village committee, says in 1966 there have been an estimated 24,000 conventional feminine divers, “however that they had lowered to 14,000 within the 1970’s, and additional lowered to 7,800 within the 1980’s, and to six,800 within the 1990’s and as not too long ago as 2023, there have been solely 2,800 haenyeo. Our haenyeo village college trains younger feminine divers to maintain the tradition alive, particularly as a result of our haenyeo are getting outdated.”
In opposition to a backdrop of quite a few challenges, Choi Ji Myung, from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, informed IPS that there’s now a fair larger must increase marine protected areas (MPAs). These are designated areas the place human actions are regulated or prohibited to guard marine sources and ecosystems from hurt.
MPAs assist restore fish shares, defend delicate habitats, and mitigate the impacts of local weather change.
Jeju Island is designated as a protected space at house and overseas. UNESCO designated Jeju Island as a biosphere reserve in 2002, a World Pure Heritage web site in 2007, and a World Geopark in 2010, and the Korean authorities and native governments have additionally designated the island with varied protected areas.
In a press briefing, Dr. Younger Nam Kim from the Korea Atmosphere Company (KOEM) said that the present standing of designated MPAs in Korea is such that there’s a whole of 16 marine ecosystem protected areas on Jeju Island, three marine species protected areas, one marine scenic space, and 18 wetland protected areas.
However because the tour round Jeju Island revealed, within the backdrop of large-scale improvement tasks and almost 16 million guests per yr, the Jeju Sea is in a crucial situation resulting from speedy improve in water temperature, coastal air pollution, sea desertification, and modifications in species resulting from local weather change.
The Busan convention, about 306 kilometers away from Jeju Island, is anticipated to ship lasting options to those urgent challenges by constructing on earlier legacy and offering the worldwide ocean neighborhood with a platform to construct again higher.
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