Pearl hunting refers to a now largely obsolete method of retreiving For other things called pearl, see pearl (disambiguation). ...pearls from The name oyster is used for a number of different groups of mollusks which grow for the most part in marine or brackish water. ...oysters. Before the beginning of the (19th century _ 20th century _ 21st century _ more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...20th century, the only means of obtaining pearls was by manually opening oysters found on the ocean floor or river bottom. Divers were often forced to descend to depths of over 10 feet, exposing them to dangers of Orders see text Sharks are a group (superorder Selachimorpha) of fish, with a full cartilaginous skeleton, a streamlined body plan with between 5 and 7 gill slits along the sides (most often) or side of the head (the first modified slit is behind the eye and called a spiracle), dermal...sharks, This article is about jellyfish, the sea creatures. ...jellyfish, and Decompression sickness, DCS, the bends, dysbarism, or caisson disease describes a condition characterized by a variety of symptoms resulting from exposure to barometric pressure which is getting lower. ...decompression sickness. Often, because of these dangers, divers were slaves or others from low societal classes. Because of the difficulty of diving and the unpredictable nature of natural pearl growth in oysters, pearls of the time were extremely rare and of varying quality.

For thousands of years, most seawater pearls were retrieved by divers working in the Indian Ocean, in areas like the A satellite image showing the Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf (Persian: خلیج فارس, Arabic: الخليج الفارسي) is an extension of the Gulf of Oman in between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ...Persian Gulf, the (Red Sea is also the name of a state in Sudan) Conshelf II in the Red Sea (Sudan) The Red Sea (Arabic البحر الأحمر Baḥr al_Aḥmar, al_Baḥru l_’Aḥmar; Hebrew ים סוף Yam Suf) is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ...Red Sea, and in the Gulf of Mannar, arm of the Indian Ocean extending east to west between India and Sri Lanka at a width of 160 to 200 km (100 to 125 mi). ...Gulf of Mannar (between The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්රී ලංකා in Sinhala / இலங்கை in Tamil) (known as Ceylon before 1972) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent. ...Sri Lanka and The Republic of India is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of more than one billion, and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. ...India). Pearl divers near the The Republic of the Philippines is an island nation consisting of an archipelago of 7,107 islands, lying in the tropical western Pacific Ocean about 100 kilometers southeast of mainland Asia. ...Phillippines were also successful at harvesting large pearls, especially in the Sulu Archipelago is an island chain in the southwest Philippines. ...Sulu Archipelago. Similarly, Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ...Native Americans harvested pearls from lakes and rivers like the The Ohio River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, 981 mi (1,579 km) long in the eastern United States. ...Ohio, The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. ...Tennessee, and Length 6,270 km Elevation of the source 450 m Average discharge 16,200 m³/s Area watershed 2,980,000 km² Origin Lake Itasca Mouth Gulf of Mexico Basin countries United States (98. ...Mississippi, while others successfully retrieved marine pearls from the The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ...Caribbean and waters along the coasts of Central America is the region of North America located between the southern border of Mexico and the northwest border of Colombia, in South America. ...Central and South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...South America.

Today, some, like the Ama divers (Japanese:海士(for Men)/海女(for Women)) are Japanese female divers famous for diving for pearls. ...Ama divers of Official language Japanese Capital Tokyo Largest City Tokyo Emperor Akihito Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Area  _ Total  _ % water Ranked 60th 377,835 km² 0. ...Japan, continue pearl hunting, but their numbers are few because of the new methods of pearl farming developed by Japanese scientist Kokichi Mikimoto (御木本 幸吉) (March 10, 1858 – September 21, 1954) is the Japanese inventor of the cultured pearl. ...Kokichi Mikimoto, which allowed for more predictable production. Today's cultured pearl industry produces millions of high quality pearls every year, taking advantage of the natural process of pearl growth by implanting particles in the oysters that encourage the formation of pearls.

References

• The Pearl Guide (http://www.pearl_guide.com/pearl_history.shtml)
• American Museum of Natural History (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/pearls/obtain/index.html)