Pearl diving was once a lucrative industry that the Emiratis are proud of. In the UAE, archaeologists have found evidence of this tradition dating back over 7,000 years ago.
Wealthy families in the region are known to give an advance loan to nukhadas, or captains, so they can maintain their boats and buy their needed supplies. The nukhadas, or captains, would then offer the pearls they collected in exchange for the favour.
Captains who did not have any financiers would sell the pearls they collected to a professional pearl merchant. Eventually, they would also trade the pearls for spices, rice, and textiles from other countries like India and Iran.
The pearling industry created a period of wealth in the UAE from the late 19th century through the second decade of the 20th century. Divers particularly worked in the shallow Arabian Gulf waters to collect oysters from the ocean floor without modern scuba equipment. The finest pearls in the world were found in the waters of the Arabian Gulf, and this provided real income for the people of the UAE. Top-end designers, such as Cartier, used pearls harvested from the UAE due to their prestige and quality.
Unfortunately, the Gulf pearl industry began plummeting in the 1920s and further declined in the early 1930s, when the Japanese found a way to make flawless artificial pearls.
