No sooner had the group of Haenyeo I was diving with entered the water when one of them snatched an octopus from its hiding place under a rock. This bilaterally symmetric mollusk sure isn’t the most beautiful creature on our planet, but at $25. per and the possibility of getting 5-10 in a day along with sea urchins and abalone literally puts food on the table for their families. The octopus is often in the shallow waters here on Jeju Island. I have eaten octopus every day here either steamed or boiled. Fresh seafood every day has me totally spoiled. #Jeju #SouthKorea #Haenyeo
The octopus is documented to be very intelligent. Do these divers have any experience to corroborate that research? There must be some interesting stories.
I like it greatly. And I like the range and fall of grey in the black and whites you are making.
FROSTFROG
this shot and all in water work was shot with the Olympus TG3…300 bucks…a great waterproof shockproof freeze proof camera ..only shoots jpegs though…and battery life only allows 250 shots per battery…BUT it is less in circumference than my iPhone 5…flat lens fits in your pocket…a very very handy accessory camera…files very good for a print up to 13×19 with no interpolation…good for any magazine..probably not so great for 60×40 prints although i do have prints that size from my old GF1 which i do not think was a good as the TG3…you can see even here tonal range is excellent…all my stuff you see here is right out of the camera…no photoshop…super fast autofocus and great meter…i have used it above water too…when i want to be really discreet….it works!!!
cheers, david
SKIWAVES
i have read the octopus is super intelligent…the women divers are of course not looking at this any different than our watermen obx….they are only seeing food and income and their life’s work….there are environmental regulations here just as we have..size limits , number of days they can harvest etc etc…when you are on Jeju you can see there is lots of ocean and very few Haenyeo…..the water is clean….from my not scientific observations it does not appear to be a fished out situation…and the govt officials claim the same…but who knows in reality?? i will study this some more…
heading home tomorrow…please stop by for a holiday beer….
cheers, david
Re the octopus. I remember seeing a doco where some scientists had crayfish in one tank on a bench and octopus in the other. But the crayfish kept disappearing. They though someone may have been pinching them so set up a camera. They discovered that the octopus was climbing out of the tank, crawling along the table and into the other tank. There it would grab a cray and either (can’t quite remember) eat it there or take it back to its tank. Anyway; the octopus was always back in its own tank in the morning!
Ross Nolly. Sounds like octopi are the ravens of the sea…