Cultured Pearl Diving in UAE

Exploring the rich history of fishing and pearl diving at a pearl farm in UAE’s northernmost and little-known emirate.

Under the piercing afternoon sun, our motorised wooden dhow pulls away from the jetty towards the Suwaidi Pearl Farm — a wooden deck located in the midst of a lagoon. Started by Abdulla Rashed Al Suwaidi in 2004, the farm, in the village of Al Rams in the northern corner of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), offers a rare chance to delve into a bygone era. Before the discovery of oil in the region, money was to be made almost entirely from fishing, and pearling or pearl diving.

One of the seven emirates that form the United Arab Emirates, RAK, about an hour away by road from Dubai, is a far cry from the high-octane pace of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Known for its incredible mountain scenery, burnt orange desert and an undulating coastline, life here has always been tied to the elements.

It takes 1,000 oysters to get a yield of just 10 pearls — one big and others small. Given the enormous human effort that goes into finding pearls, each and every one is precious, but in terms of commerce, pearls are graded by their size, colour, surface, lustre and shape. A number of natural factors are at play in creating a pearl. Oysters typically open their mantle or lip to eat and breathe. When the mantle is wounded by a parasite or worm, or attacked by a crab or fish, then as part of the healing process the oyster creates a cyst, which eventually is filled by crystallised calcium carbonate, or a pearl.

Back in the day, following the dawn prayers, oysters collected from the previous day would be pried open and the pearls, washed, graded and sorted. The biggest markets for these pearls were Mumbai (then Bombay) and Europe. We sit around our guide on the traditional Arabic majlis seating and watch as he unlocks a wooden box with small red pouches inside along with tools used to grade the gems and agate weights used to weigh them. He unties one and pours out pearls of different sizes and colours onto a bright red cloth for us to see.


SOURCE: https://www.telegraphindia.com/travel/explore-the-culture-of-pearl-farming-in-uaes-northernmost-emirate-ras-al-khaimah/cid/2049047