DATELINE :- 4th September 2000
DIVING FOR PEARLS
Now you can be a PADI Pearl Diver
Divers are being invited to hunt for gemstones - and keep whatever they find. And they will be helping the environment at the same time.
The pearls are found in the Arabian Gulf off Bahrain, where traditional free-diving methods were used for some 5000 years to harvest the natural gems that supplied 80 per cent of world demand. When the Japanese idea of cultivating pearls caught on in the 1920s and oil was discovered in the Gulf, the bottom fell out of the natural pearl market.
Since then the oyster beds off Bahrain have proliferated to such an extent that they are starting to present an environmental hazard.
The Pinctada fucata oysters are encouraged to flourish by a combination of shallow, highly saline sea water and sweet freshwater springs. Some 200,000 tonnes of pearl-bearing oysters are reckoned now to cover 400sq miles of water, and this overcrowding combined with warmer water has seen the oysters competing with other marine life for survival. Controlled harvesting is therefore encouraged by the government.
Rob Gregory, who runs the Aquatique PADI five-star IDC dive centre in Bahrain, has come up with the idea of a PADI Pearl Diver Speciality course. The one-day course costs £100 and includes a theory session and two boat dives The diving is in about 10m and can be carried out by scuba-divers or good snorkellers or free-divers.
Only in Bahrain are scuba divers allowed to hunt for pearls and keep what they find. Although there is no longer a market for natural pearls, collectors will pay high prices for gems of sufficient roundness and lustre. One exceptional one found recently was sold for around £14,000!
The chances of finding oyster shells containing pearls is rated as high as 60 per cent once the diver has learnt to identify likely contenders - they tend to be the sickly ones with red boring sponges and pock-marking on the shells.
According to Gregory, there is a variety of diving available off Bahrain, although much of it is some distance from the dive centre. Sites include coral reefs and wrecks, with dugongs (sea cows), green turtles and stingrays among distinctive local fauna.
Contact Aquatique on 00 973 271780, or www.pearldive.com