Dubai: For long Emiratis were largely dependent on income from pearl diving.
Emiratis call the pearl, "loulou" and oysters "qmash". Diving in Arabic is "Al Ghous".
The harsh climate of the Arabian Gulf pushed the people to the sea for a living.
The Bani Yas tribe was the first to practise pearl diving as a profession in the UAE. Pearling, however, went beyond commercial activity and became a part of the UAE's culture and heritage.
Pearl diving played an essential role in the history of the UAE as well as the rest of the Gulf states.
Diving for pearls was widely practised before the discovery of oil. It was a risky business due to the sparse diving tools that the divers were equipped with. A diving trip sometimes took months and people would search the waters at various depths for different types of pearls. They sometimes had to dive to depths of up to 40 metres without proper equipment, in order to access the oyster beds to be able to find and gather the precious pearls.
Pearling season
The Emirati pearling industry at one time boasted more than 1,200 pearling boats, each with almost 20 divers. The captain of the boat was known as "noukhatha". All the boats departed from the same port for the summer harvest and all they sailed together and returned by the beginning of winter.
Many Emirati families were permanently settled in the coastal villages, particularly in the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. People in other emirates would live on the coast during the pearling season from May to September, and resume their usual lifestyle in the winter when there is no pearling.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, when demand for pearls shot up, trade ties between Indian merchants and the UAE soared.
The UAE pays great attention to this chapter of the country's history and resurrects its importance at museums across the Emirates. Visitors will undoubtedly see the lifestyle of the bygone era, which will be remembered by the coming generations of Emiratis.
The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has unveiled the ‘Pearls of Arabia', a landmark project that features a high-quality offshore entertainment, retail and educational centre. This project seeks to represent the Emirate as the hub of the international pearl commerce. The Emirates Diving Association (EDA) has also issued a book on pearl diving that revolves around the rich heritage of pearl diving in the UAE and the rest of the Gulf countries. Tourists to the UAE look for ornaments as souvenirs.
