Lost profession of pearl diving

BAHRAIN-BORN Rob Gregory is arguably the longest residing expatriate in the kingdom and knows the sea and sands of the island like the back of his hands.

He is a veteran diving instructor and well-renowned for his underwater knowledge and experience.
He also believes he may be the last living pearl diver of Bahrain – an island that has an amazing 5,000 year history of securing the precious gems hidden in its warm waters.
Mr Gregory, 56, has compiled documentary evidence and carried out research spanning more than 35 years to illustrate that this island is a treasure of wealth, history and significance that no other place on this planet can be compared with.
His work has been gleaned and documented by various international media sources such as the BBC, CNN, TV 5, Fuji TV, Discovery and Time magazine.
Rob’s passion for pearls dates back to 1969, a time when the island had the last few of its professional pearl divers left.
During the making of the Walt Disney movie – Hamad and the Pirates – he got the opportunity to work with a team of old pearl divers, the youngest of whom was aged around 50.
During this time he learned the art of ‘breath-hold’ pearl diving and to speak Arabic, and, although he cannot read or write it, he can very fluently converse in the local Muharragi dialect.
Much of the industry’s history has been captured in the songs the crews would sing during a pearl diving trip.
Rob recorded a selection for the Hamad and The Pirates film.
He has also spent 10 years on the Great Barrier Reef and with various marine park authorities in Australia studying marine life and particularly the development of eco-tourism. During this period he won six Whitsunday Tourism Awards.
“Through my experience in PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) as a course director and in conjunction with my partner and fellow course director, Robin Bugeja, we were able to author our own PADI-sanctioned programme – a unique distinctive specialty programme on pearl diving; its history and ecology.”
Rob and Robin have been able to develop and create, what they call a win, win and win situation. “A win for the environment, a win for Bahrain’s history, heritage and economy and a win for all diver and non-diver participants.
“Robin Bugeja is, in her own right, a legend in her own lunch-break,” quips Rob, “one of only 83 female course directors in the world she has trained people from every continent, from princesses to paupers and from schoolchildren to marines!
“She has a natural flair for marine biology and ecology and has put this to excellent use on Bahrain’s pearl grounds.”
Affectionately called ‘Mother of Pearl’ she has conducted close to a thousand dives on the hayraat (pearl grounds). “A bit of a Steve Irwin, that one!” says Rob.
This September and October, Rob Gregory will complete filming a feature for National Geographic about Bahraini pearls, as part of a ‘Save Our Seas’ series of programmes. He will be giving detailed guidance on the history and heritage of the island.
The first record of any diving in the history of mankind took place in Bahrain when Gilgamesh visited the island in 3750BC. His biography, The Epic of Gilgamesh, that was found in the remains of a hidden vault in Mesopotamia explains, in Cuneiform script, that he had discovered the ‘flower of the sea’. This flower, it was explained, had two petals that were silver on the inside and sometimes contained ‘silver seeds’… the pearls.
For the first 2,000 years of its history, pearls were used as a means of medicine. Legends had it that consuming pearls gave the power of eternal life. This may explain the presence of around 170,000 burial mounds in Bahrain.
With intensive research and modern DNA testing, it has been shown that not just Bahrainis, but people from the world over were buried here. 
The National Museum of Bahrain exhibits a pearl that was found in a burial ground dating back to around 2000 BC ... probably the first evidence of pearl jewellery. More evidence of the brilliance of the gem is seen at the Louvre Museum in Paris which exhibits a pearl necklace dating back to 600BC. The necklace, to this day, stands unscarred with its many pearls stuck over a piece of cloth proving its preciousness.
“We have many references to Bahrain or Dilmun being a place of pearl harvesting or pearl industry. In ancient history, Persians, Greeks, Trojans, Macedonains, Turks, Romans have all recorded Bahraini pearl fisheries”, said Mr Gregory. 
In 77AD, a Roman senator, Plinius Secundus, declared that the pearl was the ‘most valuable asset of all mankind’.
The gem was more precious and valuable than anything that mankind had ever come across. It had even come to a point where they prioritised it over their nation, land, family and even a wife. 
“The pearl was not just jewellery; it became currency, equity and security,” expained Mr Gregory. “Most cultures understood what a pearl meant. It was a common denominator. Most cultures and tribes recognised the value of the pearl. It was a secular item. There is no religious script to date that does not mention the pearl. This is embedded in our lives, in our own histories.
“There is only one pearl land – Bahrain, and it is alive at the moment. Bahrain is that special,” said Mr Gregory, whose late British father came to Bahrain to work for oil company, Bapco.
He speaks with a passion reflecting a man who has given his life to the study and understanding the value of natural pearls – the Bahraini pearl.
One of the best collections of pearls to this day remains in Queen Elizabeth I’s wardrobes where she had over 3,000 dresses with pearls embedded on them. She employed 53 valets to polish them every single day.
One of the most significant pearl periods was in 1725 when the British Governor of Persia at the time reported to the Governor General, Sir Robert Clive, about a place called Bahrain and its pearl grounds.
He said that there were a wealth of pearls there but more importantly he said, there was a fleet of boats bigger than both the British Royal Navy and Merchant Navy combined. That could very easily have been conceived as a threat to the Empire.
That was the beginning of a period of unity for the neighbouring Arab states when the British signed a Treaty of Friendship with Bahrain.
In 1838, the British dispatched Lt J R Wellsted from India, to come to Bahrain to conduct a one year survey on the pearling industry in Bahrain.
This was the first ever survey conducted in Bahrain and the original documents of the survey now reside in the British Library in London.
According to his survey, Bahrain hosted 4,200 vessels or dhows that carried 30,000 pearl divers four months a year from June to September removing approx 35,000 tonnes of oysters from the sea bed each and every year. The Gross National Product of export to East and West came at a stunning value of approx £400,000 in those days.
“That was the summary for Bahrain’s pearl industry: The largest fleet on earth. The largest industry on the face of the earth. The largest Gross National Product in the known world, then,” says Mr Gregory.
A second British survey, conducted in 1879, revealed that the number of boats, tonnage and divers remained mostly the same but the export value had doubled to £800,000.
“Over 5,000 years, approximately 175 million tonnes of oysters have been taken out of Bahrain! That’s just how huge this industry was.”
Two financial historians: one at Manchester University in England and one at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia were separately consulted on this data. And both had the same answer to give. The minimum value of the currency of that period could be equivalent to £800 million at the turn of the 21st Century.
The pearling business met its nemesis in 1889 when a Japanese noodle maker, Kokichi Mikimoto, collaborated with Australian marine biologist, Neville Kent Jones, to launch the artificial Mikimoto pearl; the cultured pearl.
“They had discovered that if you plant a foreign object inside a living oyster and put it back in the sea to live, it will naturally create or grow into a pearl,” added Mr Gregory.
The discovery of oil in the 1930s had a huge impact on Bahrain in general and the pearl industry in particular.
The collapse of the natural pearl industry, subsequent to the introduction of the cultured pearl, compelled the redundant pearl divers and their families to fend for themselves by building shelter from resident palm fronds; collecting water from the fresh water springs around the islands; and gathering food (fish) caught in hathara  (fish traps) still utilised today.
The establishment of the oil industry in Bahrain brought new found wealth and prosperity; employment and education for a large number of hard-working, reliable ex-pearl divers.
“I have seen Bahrain before and after and what a difference. What an absolute difference! A difference for the overall betterment, however, sadly, at this point, there isn’t a single pearl diver in Bahrain; not even a pearl dhow captain. I am embarrassed to say, certainly not proud, that I am the only one left that I know.”

Special Report
By Shilpa Chandran
shilpa.chandran@gulfweekly.com