Geography

• The Persian Gulf is one of the oldest sites for pearl diving.Antalia image by Vladimir from Fotolia.com
  
  Pearls populate seas across the globe. The belly of the Persian Gulf has been a longtime source of saltwater pearls, in particular off the island of Bahrain, east of Saudi Arabia. Other breeding grounds for oysters include the Gulf of Mannar, situated between Sri Lanka and the southeast tip of India, Japan, China, Panama and Venezuela. South Sea pearls are excavated off the coasts of Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar and Thailand. Freshwater pearls, meanwhile, grow in Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio river bottoms.
  
  

Significance

• Egyptians, Romans and Arabs all revered pearls for their beauty and luster.Pearl in shell image by Dr.Szirmai J??nos from Fotolia.com
  
  Because of their luster and appeal, pearls were known as the "Queen of Gems," according to researchers for NOVA at pbs.org. The Romans valued them so highly that General Vitellius, who would later go on to be emperor, used his mother's pearl earrings to finance a military campaign. Then there is Cleopatra. Pearl experts at pearl-guide.com tell of a legend that, while this particular daughter of Isis was dining with Marc Antony, she wagered that she could consume the equivalent of a nation's entire wealth in one meal. She then plopped a pearl in a glass of wine, let it dissolve, and drank the contents. The Arabs also revered pearls, immortalizing them in the Koran when describing Paradise as a utopia where pearls grow on trees and pave walkways. During the chivalric Middle Ages, not only did fair maidens wear pearls to enhance their beauty and auras of innocence, but knights wore them in battle as talismans against the enemy.
  
  

History

• Oysters were once so plentiful that pearls could be plucked from shallow pools and beaches during low tide.underwater rocks image by Partridge Pictures from Fotolia.com
  
  As far back as 4,000 years ago, oysters and pearls were so abundant that they could be plucked from sand during low tide. The steady depletion spurred the need to dive. For both the Australian Aboriginals as well as the Japanese, pearl divers were typically female. According to divingheritage.com, the Aboriginals believed that women had larger lung capacity than men, and could therefore harvest more pearls per dive. Modern science has since disproved this belief, according to medical websites such as netfit.co.uk as well as Peak Performance, a sports research institution base in the United Kingdom. In Japan, women divers were known as "Ama," which translates to "sea woman' and traditionally dived in nothing more than loincloths. Their techniques were known as "breath-hold" diving and some divers could descend as deep as 100 feet.
  
  

Australia

• Australia has become a juggernaut in the pearl industry, bolstered by the existence of the Pinctada maxima oyster. The Pinctada maxima mollusk produces the South Sea Pearl, one of the largest pearls in the world, averaging 13mm. Broome, Australia, became the nucleus of pearl harvesting and, by 1910, the region employed about 400 workers. The ritual for divers during this time typically began with a sip of port. Divers then donned canvas suits and bronze helmets before they were lowered into the ocean's depths. While submerged, they trudged in boots weighted down with lead, and culled as many oysters as possible because a worker's pay was dependent upon the amount they harvested.
  
  

Warning

• Between 1882 and 1935, cyclones killed roughly 800 divers and sailors in the pearl industry. From 1912 to 1915, 93 divers died from the bends, a decompression sickness created by the increase of nitrogen in the human body as the ocean's pressure increases and physically stresses the lungs.