[In 2010 Sherrin Hibbard swam around Jeju Island as part of The Jeju Big Swim in an environmental awareness compaign alongside kayaker Steve Oberhauser. The Australian was moved to do so by the pollution she saw around the Jeju coast and wanted people to be aware of the need to protect the marine environment.

Below is a personal account of her endeavor written while still on the island. It was published on the ABC Open project, where it was again picked up by Radio Australia for broadcast. The Jeju Weekly thanks Sherrin Hibbard for her hard work for Jeju Island and its natural environment. - Ed.]

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▲ A co-founder of The Jeju Big Swim, Sherrin Hibbard takes a breather after finishing the 10-km swim from Samyang Beach to Hamdeok on Aug. 13, 2011. Photo by Darryl Coote

Every year thousands of tourists walk, cycle or otherwise motor their way around the holiday island of Jeju, South Korea. But one intrepid traveller took a somewhat different path - all in the name of environmental education and awareness.

There I was, 1km from shore, swimming through garbage. As I took my breath on every fifth stroke – 1,2,3,4,5 breathe left, 1,2,3,4,5 breathe right – I had to lift my head high so that I didn’t accidently swallow any of the detritus surrounding me.

This was my tenth day of the “Jeju Big Swim”, an environmental campaign to raise awareness about the state of the oceans. I was swimming 200kms around an island and though it was only 10am, I’d already been in the sea for nearly 5 hours.

Up to now the water I’d swum through had smelled – of sewerage, of oil and fuel, or of dead rotting fish - presumably coming from the many aquaculture fish farms I’d swum past every day. Sometimes the water smelled of all three together. And I’d seen zillions of plastic bags in every state of decay. But this rubbish – chip packets, broken buckets, thongs, plastic bottles, toothbrushes, pegs and goodness knows what else - this was a new thing.

And it wasn’t just on the surface. I counted my strokes – 1,2,3,4, 5, breathe left, 1,2,3,4,5, breathe right – and looking down, saw that the rubbish was all around me, distributed through the water column – down in the blue below me as far as I could see.

Like many foreigners I had come to Jeju, a large, but not too large island about 80 kms off theKorean peninsula, to work as an English teacher. Intending to stay only a year, once I arrived I became entranced by the island’s shamans – people who talked to the dead - and the haenyo – sea women who dived for shellfish and other delicacies on a single breath of air. I had learned about shamans at university. And as an ex commercial fisherman I was similarly intrigued by the haenyo - those women who, like I had done in another life, made their living from the sea.

▲ Sherrin Hibbard in May 2010 at Samyang Beach during preparations for The Jeju Big Swim. Photo by Darren Southcott

The shamans, with their colourful costumes, their loud, ritualistic music on instruments I’d never seen before, their strange talismans and exotic rituals that went on late into the night – what were they doing? What were they saying? Why did they throw coins out of cups and dance and sing. Why was the shaman crying and the audience laughing?And the haenyo- what did they catch? What was the whistling noise they made on surfacing? What did it feel like to dive on air alone? Did they love the sea like I did? With so little written in English I had to rely on my friends to answer my questions, the answers to which they often didn’t know. This island – a mecca for tourists with its beautiful beaches, innumerable hiking trails and designated World Heritage sites –overwhelmed my senses.

6 years later I’m still on Jeju.I’m 1km from shore and swimming for the environment because all is not well in this island paradise. Pollution, litter, habitat destruction and inappropriate coastal development are taking their toll. As I swim, I’m aware of just how real these problems are, in a way not understood when standing on the shore. I will have lots to tell but for now I’ll just keep swimming, breathing every 5 strokes and making sure I lift my head high – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 breathe……