Catching snails is an easy summer activity. The low entry barrier is causing deaths.
Seven people died while hunting for small freshwater snails in just the span of one week, with authorities warning that the simple outing carries big risks.
A girl immerses herself to catch daseulgi (small freshwater snails) during a festival on the small freshwater horn-shell snail, on a stream in Cheorwon, Gangwon, on July 30.Yonhap
What begins as an ordinary summer outing is increasingly becoming a fatal one: daseulgi hunting. Every summer, foragers descend on streams and rivers around the country to catch the small freshwater snails. Between July 26 and Sunday this summer, seven never returned home.
Deaths while snail hunting, occurring mostly among older adults, have ticked upward for the last three years, with seven in 2023, 11 in 2024 and 14 last year. Half of the deaths came in August, and people in their 60s and older accounted for 26 out of the 32, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
The snails are used in soups and were once sold in paper cups at roadside stalls. They are available at markets but are also easy to spot in streams and rivers, which is why families commonly make a trip to the nearest clean stream and have a go at catching some themselves, for both fun and food.
What are these tiny snails and why are people trying to catch them?
Daseulgi are popular for their chewy, savory taste.
Known academically as Semisulcospira libertina, the spiral-shelled snails look like smaller versions of conch shells and live on the undersides of stones in shallow, clean water.
They turn up most often in soup, simmered with doenjang, or fermented soybean paste, and whatever is in season; chives in spring, mallow leaves in autumn and spinach in winter. Daseulgi were once sold at snack carts near coastal attractions as well, served hot and lightly salted in paper cups and eaten with toothpicks, each snail pulled from its shell one at a time.
Daseulgi also carry a reputation. They are eaten as a hangover cure and, more broadly, as something good for the liver, an age-old belief embedded in the minds of many Koreans.
Nowadays, that belief is attributed to taurine, the sulfur-containing amino acid the liver uses to conjugate bile acids.
Visitors search for snails during the main event of the 20th Cheorwon Hwagang Daseulgi Festival at Shiri Park on the Hwagang River in Cheorwon County, Gangwon, on July 30.YONHAP
So why are they so dangerous?
They are extremely easy to catch — and that's what makes them so dangerous.
Daseulgi live in shallow water, which sounds safe… until it's not. Shallows in Korean rivers are usually not a uniform depth, with sudden drop-offs of up to 2 meters (6.6 feet), and summer rains can raise water levels.
The treacherous topography has prompted emergency response authorities to urge people to stay away.
They have good reason to do so: Between June and August in both 2024 and 2025, the National Fire Agency fielded 134 emergency calls over incidents during daseulgi hunting, 11 of which resulted in fatalities.
The concentration of deaths among older adults is attributed to mobility, with those in the 60s less likely to stabilize themselves in slippery conditions or adapt to a sudden change in the riverbed.
Foragers spend the whole time bent over with their eyes locked on the riverbed without necessarily paying attention to their surroundings. An 80-year-old who died in a stream in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang, last month was found about 40 meters from the spot where he started.
Daseulgi sujebi, or hand-torn noodles in freshwater snail broth, at the Toji Daseulgi restaurant in Gurye, South Jeolla. The broth is made with fresh snails from the Seomjin River, which turns it bluish-green.CHOI SEUNG-PYO
Of the fatalities over the past three summers, 19 out of the 32 were not from the region where they drowned, and the unfamiliar terrain may have contributed to their deaths.
Heat is taking its toll on foragers as well. A woman in her 50s was found unresponsive in her car in Yeongdong, North Chungcheong, on Saturday after foraging in the morning. She was later declared dead. Police are pointing to heatstroke as the cause, as the high for the day reached 34.8 degrees Celsius (94.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
In that same afternoon, a man in his 60s who was fishing in Inje, Gangwon, saw a forager go under and swam out to pull him up. Rescuers pulled both men from the river, and while the forager survived, the man who tried to help did not.
Daseulgi, or freshwater snails, at the Toji Daseulgi restaurant in Gurye, South JeollaCHOI SEUNG-PYO
Precautions needed
Catching daseulgi by hand requires no licence, and done carefully, it is an ordinary summer outing. What the law restricts is the method and the place.
The ministry has published guidelines aimed squarely at the cause of the fatalities. Foragers should "refrain from foraging after drinking or after dark, and wear a life jacket and go with others," it says.
Fire authorities advise foragers to stand upright occasionally to check the terrain and get their bearings, while recommending against drifting far from their snail-hunting companions. Solo excursions are strongly discouraged.
Anyone may gather freshwater snails with simple gear but not with a motorized boat, scuba equipment, a cast net or a spear, according to the Inland Water Fisheries Act. Restrictions may also differ by river.
Foragers should also note that gathering daseulgi is banned nationwide from Dec. 1 through the end of February, when the snails are overwintering. Getting caught can result in up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 10 million won ($7,021).
