A Winter Tradition

We had a great swim.  The final still shows west-bound traffic on highway 50.  A whole lot of  people came to see us swim.  One hour to get to the beach, five hours to get back to camp!

Fishermen returned from N. Korea

I don't have any special insight to the story but it is my beat, so I should at least provide links and background.

About a month ago, a fishing boat with four crew from Sokcho crossed into North Korean waters. So far, I think no one is publicly saying why although suggestions of navigation equipment or engine failure have been common. I have not heard anyone mention espionage although it is probably in everyone's sub-conscious.

Last night, they came home. Well, they were returned to South Korean territory -with their boat. I suspect none of the crew have been home nor will be for a few days longer. They may have had some contact - closely monitored - with their family.

For my mother and other foreign visitors, I think the return of the fishermen is connected to the offers of family reunions for Chuseok (An important holiday coming soon); both are related to offering more of a carrot to South Korea. The previous government was very North-friendly but the current one is not (and I approve, for all that's worth). Threats and missile launches haven't brought significant offers of aid so North Korea is trying a friendlier tack.

Anyway, on to some links:

The Korea Times

The Marmot's Hole

ROK Drop

probably poor navigation

Via the Marmot's Hole, I see a fishing boat on the East Coast crossed into North Korean waters and was towed to a North Korean harbour. I suspect the boat is lost, to enrich the North Korean fishing fleet, but I hope the crew are returned, and in good time.
BBC
Reuters

Image from offshore motorboat.

Sailing regatta in Susan Harbour, Yangyang, this weekend

I'm looking for English information, but haven't found any, yet.  The dinghy races start on Thursday and seem to include Lasers (a few different sizes), Hobies, Mistrals and others.  I am familiar with Lasers as small, fast boats and Hobies as catamarans.  Mistrals seem  to be windsurfers. In Korean.

Start your article with a hook

In the Korea Herald is an article about SCUBA diving in Korea and the title is "2nd best place to enjoy summer: under water".  I love to swim and dive; so much so that I have to wonder what could possibly rank higher.  In reading the article, I still wonder.  (Related: if this is their second best idea, what was their first?)

From the article:

She said diving contribute to a healthier lifestyle for expats for a number of reasons. First, she said diving is a very safe sport because you're not exposed to any possible injuries that often occur in sports we play on the ground.

"Diving underwater increases your cardio-vascular endurance and allows you to experience what it is like to move in a four-dimensional world like in space."

She said cardio-vascular endurance is the ability of the heart, blood vessels, blood and respiratory system to supply oxygen and fuel to muscles at a steady rate for a considerable length of time.

...

"Also, my love for the nature has driven me to learn more about it, and made me realize we, as divers, have so much to do to protect and preserve the marine life, which is surprisingly damaged a lot by old fishing methods, pollution on the land, deforestation, you name it. The more I dive, the more I want to get out there to make a difference, even if it's just by picking up garbage in the water."

  I need to make two snarky comments.  Again, I love SCUBA diving and feel it is a safe sport, but it needs significant training.  I think there are many who would question the relative safety of SCUBA compared to tennis, for example.  Still, it is not hard on your joints -unless you get the bends, in which case your joints fill with nitrogen bubbles and you could DIE!

"Maneuver in a four-dimensional world?"  Alright, including time, I guess there are four dimensions, but not many people maneuver in that fourth dimension.

Okay, snarkiness over.  I like the idea that diving will make people more aware of the environment and work to protect it.  I believe that is true.  On the other hand, I have doven with Korean divers and diving can be a way to get fresh sushi.  I remember diving in Koje Island and pointing out an octopus I saw under a rock.  I turned away, then looked back to see the octopus being stuffed into a bag.  Later, the diver's daughter ate the ring of tentacle on a stick like an eight-legged lollipop.

Here in Sokcho, I see men and women out harvesting the bounty of the ocean to such an extent that I can't believe they leave anything behind.

There's gold on Jo Island

Conditions looked right for a rainbow but I was in a canyon of apartment buildings, so I picked a random one, rode the elevator to the highest floor and walked the stairs to the roof to take these photos.

By chance, this apartment had a great view of Cheungcho Lake.  In the foreground  of the picture below are several rows of pipes.  They will be towed north at some point to a deep water plant that, I guess, draws the water from over a thousand meters down to the surface and desalinates it.  I don't know how distilling water (or whatever other method they use to desalinate it) from a pure source differs from using a contaminated source - removing the salt requires enough work that most every other contaminant will be removed as well.

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I posted these pics in fairly large format, but they won't expand for me.  I hope they do for you.

Quick: call VANK!

A newspaper is describing a sea by it's non-Korean name.

And it's the Joongang Daily.

The North deploys artillery on coast of the Yellow Sea

Seoul developing countermeasures to contend with the potential new threat...

Now, the news is serious and I want people to take it seriously, but, come on, the Yellow Sea? Where's that? North (and South) Korea have the East Sea (on their East Coasts, unsurprisingly) and the West Sea (On their west coasts). South Korea has a South Sea as well, but North Korea does not.

Yellow Sea? Nope.

A little background on VANK, for my mother and others outside of Korea:

VANK, a civic group with more than 15,000 members here and abroad, has been working hard to correct and promote historical facts about Korea on the Internet, textbooks in foreign countries and other publications and media.

	A screen capture on Wikipedia: “Liancourt Rocks” comes up when Web users search Dokdo. [YONHAP]

Established in 1999, VANK has been playing a key role in promoting the view that the sea between Korea’s east coast and Japan is properly named the East Sea, not the Sea of Japan, as named in many foreign publications, textbooks and Web sites.

“We are monitoring well-known Web sites like Wikipedia.com, CIA World Factbook, Encyclopedia.com and other Web dictionary sites, and our members living overseas also let us know if there is anything to be corrected in publications or school textbooks in foreign countries,” said Lim Hyeon-suk, a researcher for VANK.

Currently the group is monitoring hundreds of Web sites of foreign universities, international organizations, media outlets, Internet search engines, Web portals, government bodies, intelligence agencies, research centers and even airline companies. Major monitoring targets include official Web sites of the United Nations, foreign ministries of each country, the U.S. Library of Congress, Yahoo and even ESPN and TV Guide.

Background also from the Joongang (July 18, 2008). Their wikipedia article appears to be this one.

If "Sea of Japan" is incorrect, then "Yellow Sea" must be as well. Get to work, VANK (I figure that if they are 'monitoring hundreds of Web sites', mine must be on the list).

Happy New Year and all that!

The first dawn of the new year, as it's light first hits the Korean peninsula.

Ye Ole Swimmin' hole

Can an ocean beach be a 'swimming hole'? I've always thought of semi-secret bends of a river as swimming holes. Anyway...

Just north of the lighthouse in Sokcho are a group of submerged and half-submerged boulders that make an excellent diving platform and provide a substrate for a dynamic ecosystem.

As with any good swimming hole, getting there is a challenge - you have to scramble down the breakwater tetrahedrons to reach the narrow beach.

Last year, the beach wasn't nearly so narrow. Here, I have (crappily) photoshopped in the beach as it appeared in 2007.
I am balancing on the two rocks in an area that was half this depth last year. More than a metre of sand has been swept away.
Mussels of the intertidal zone.
A group of conscript soldiers enjoying some time off.


A soldier took the above picture of me as well as this video of me swimming through an under water tunnel that, last year, was also underground.




While swimming, I found many schools of fish, a crab intermittently seen through the jungle of seaweed and a pair of nudibranches ( I think - they were as big as my head, black and dark brown and had a few snail- or slug-like tentacles). I also found a squirtgun and a pair of goggles.

Oh, last year, I found a pair of goggles with the adhesive covers still on the lenses - I guess someone bought them, tried them and could hardly see, didn't realize that the tape should be removed, and threw them away. This story has nothing to do with the swimming hole, I just think it's funny.

7:00AM at the Beach

The Kyoungsangnam-family are visiting and we all got up early and went to the beach to watch the sunrise.

In addition to being dam' cold, it was also dam' fun. We had to park a kilometre away because there were so many people but the comradry improved the atmosphere.
We were in time to get a space on a pier with an unobstructed view and all were dressed well enough that we could cheerfully exclaim, "Cold, isn't it".
A few moments after the sun appeared, bolloons were launched. (Click to enlarge)
The intrepid explorer (I guess you could click to enlarge, if you wanted to).

Red Jellyfish

I know the white or translucent ones I see are safe, or relatively safe, but this red one, found in Cheongcho Lake, just looks dangerous. Most of the jellyfish I see have been pounded by surf along shore and have probably already fired their cnematocysts (I am not sure about the spelling but I mean the poison darts carried in their tentacles); this one looks hale and ready for trouble.

Melissa asked about the jellyfish that Koreans eat and I have no idea what kind is eaten. I once bought Hae-pari mustard with bits of jellyfish in it, but again, I don't know what kind it was.

By the way, Pari can mean 'insect' in Korean. Is haepari (해파리) 'ocean insect'?

Click on the images to enlarge.

Jellyfish

Found in Cheongcho Lake next to ferryboat racecourse.