Hello! Today I’m going to talk about different random things about pearl diving such as skills needed, what is considered pearl diving today and the first person who opened a market of pearls.
Pearl diving is not easy
As mentioned in the other post, there are several risks that divers expose to. Hunting pearls is not an easy job. A disadvantage of it is that not all oysters produce pearls and because of that, divers have to collect many oysters. Sometimes, even if he or she picks many of them, there might not be any pearls found. Also, there are multiple abilities or skills that divers should know. (Lane, Ross)
Skills Required for Pearl Diving
For pearl diving there are multiple skills required, for example having the ability to read underwater maps, air compression and of course equipment are skills needed to do this process. Another skill is to know lifesaving techniques as well as water safety methods; knowing the harvesting point of oysters and how to take the pearls from it. (Damewood, Cassie)
First market of pearls
Kokich Mikimoto was a Japanese man born in 1858, who always had been involved in pearl diving. He is considered the father of cultured pearls industry. Why? He played a role in developing new pearl diving techniques as well as convincing people to enter to the pearl industry; to accept pearls as valuable. During his lifetime, Mikimoto spent time researching about how to culture pearls making him the first to open the doors of pearl industry.
He has received many awards from Japan and, of course, is a very well-known person. (Pearl-Guide).
Today
Nowadays pearl diving is considered more as a hobby rather than a profession. In places such as the Arabian Sea, pearl diving is a tourist attraction.
Pearl diving has been replaced by practices that include growing pears instead of harvesting them. (Lane, Ross)
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about pearl diving, for me is a really interesting topic. I hope you like it!
Sources:
Lane, Ross. "Facts on Pearl Diving." EHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Trusted Advice for the Curious Life | EHow.com. EHow, 1999-2011. Web. 01 Sept. 2011.
Damewood, Cassie. "The Average Salary for Pearl Diving | EHow.com." EHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Trusted Advice for the Curious Life | EHow.com. EHow, 1999-2011. Web. 01 Sept. 2011.
Unknown. "Kokichi Mikimoto | Pearl-Guide.com." Pearl Information | Pearl-Guide.com. Pearl-Guide, 2011. Web. 01 Sept. 2011.
Hi Pau! I loved your blog, the true is that I see movies that present like finding a pearl or cartoons like Sponge Bob, but I don’t even know that it is a hobby and sometimes even a profession someone can get. I imagine the first person that discovered a pearl; I don’t know what she or he was doing in the bottom of the ocean opening oysters. I get impact about the fact that for pearl driving you need skills; I actually considered it, as you mentioned, a hobby more than an activity that you need to prepared. Well I love your blog, keep it up!
ReplyDeleteYaressi Treviño
Paulina, pearl diving is a very interesting topic because for me pearls are like something magic, I mean how it is possible for an oysters to produce such wonder!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your information about that pearl diving is not an easy job, because you need to be trained in order for you to dive so many meters underground and still be able to live; many times scuba divers die because of the pressure of the deep, but I think that if it´s your passion and you loved doing it, you should do it, of course always using the right equipment.
Even do I find pearls a wonder, I still believed they should not be marketed because the oysters are living organisms and we are killing them by taking them out of their habitat just for the humans to have something to sell and make money, I mean I don´t know what you think, but that´s my personal opinion.
Apart from all my speech I still believe you have a very interesting topic and I hope you keep us in track about everything relate to pearls.
Ilse Galván