Cheil Transforms 300-Year-Old Safety System into Life-Saving App for Jeju’s Traditional Divers

​Cheil and the Jeju Institute of Korean Medicine have launched a safety system based on the traditional community culture of 'haenyeo', women free-divers in the South Korean province of Jeju.

The haenyeo dive dozens of times a day up to 20 metres deep to harvest seafood, relying solely on their own bodies without any modern equipment. Recognised as one of the world’s only female-led fishing cultures, the haenyeo were inscribed on UNESCO's List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016.

The number of haenyeo is steadily declining due to aging, while safety accidents are increasing. 35% of safety accidents involve cardiac arrest, and over 70% of these occur among elderly divers aged 70 or older.

To prevent accidents among haenyeo, Cheil and the Jeju Institute of Korean Medicine developed the dedicated app Haenyeo Safe Buddy. Based on the haenyeo's traditional culture of cooperation, the app uses smartwatch data to quickly detect health risk signals and facilitate rapid rescue in emergencies.

Haenyeo have traditionally relied on 'sunooreum', a cooperative culture of watching over each other's safety during diving to prevent accidents. As the number of haenyeo has decreased, the physical distance between them during diving has grown, making this traditional safety net insufficient. The Haenyeo Safe Buddy app bridges the widening physical gap between divers using modern technology.

The app monitors the heart rates of diving haenyeo in real time, comprehensively analysing heart rate changes and quickly detecting danger signals. In an emergency, it automatically sends a warning alarm to not only the affected diver but to all haenyeo within a 1km radius. This allows nearby divers to immediately initiate primary rescue efforts. This enables rescue efforts to be initiated within the critical four–six-minute golden rescue window before the average seven-minute arrival time of emergency responders.

In the event of any other type of serious incident, pressing the app's emergency button transmits an alert to the fishing village association and the Jeju emergency response center, enabling a swift and systematic response.

The Haenyeo Safe Buddy app launched in March and is currently used by 300 haenyeo. Over the past ten months, there have been zero fatalities reported among the monitored individuals.

R&D team leader of the Jeju Institute of Korean Medicine, Hee-chul Ko stated, "The Haenyeo Safe Buddy app is where modern technology meets the spirit of traditional diving to enable swift and effective rescue when women divers face danger. We hope this new solution will help preserve the tradition of our cultural heritage and contribute to their safety for generations to come."