Diver finds perfect pearl in chance dive
Al Maliki stumbles on oyster with 8.4-carat pearl inside while exploring new bed
ABahraini professional diver has found a perfect pearl inside an oyster and sold it for 7,500 Bahraini dinars (Dh73,254).
Ahmad Al Maliki said that he was truly lucky as it was the first time he went, alongside fellow divers, to dive in the area where he found the perfect pearl.
“We usually go out in the sea and dive in four places. After diving in three oyster beds, we decided to go to a new area. We opted to go to a place that is not frequented by many people because it is far off the shore and the waters are deep,” he said.
During the assessment trip, he collected several oysters and when he later opened them, he found the pearl.
“I have been diving for 10 years, but this is the first time I got a pearl weighing 8.4 carats,” he said, quoted by local daily Al Ayam.
“When I saw the pearl, I could not believe it. I even had doubts that one of my friends was playing a trick on me, so when we were ashore, I went to an expert and he told me that it was natural. He took it to a specialised laboratory and they confirmed his conclusion.”
Diving for pearls in Bahrain is a deeprooted tradition and up to 1932, it was the main source of income in the country. Reports said that Bahrain supplied up to 80 per cent of the world’s needs for pearls.
However, the industry suffered a serious setback when Japan flooded the world markets with cheaper cultured pearls.
Luckily for Bahrainis, they switched their jobs to join the oil industry with the discovery of the first well in the Arabian Gulf.
Bahrain has recently been working on reviving the pearling tradition beyond a cultural legacy for heritage festivals and several diving expeditions are being organised.