RAE AL- KHAIMAH, UAE: Long before the discovery of oil transformed the Gulf, pearl were the region's source of wealth, and pearl divers were a mainstay of the economy. Their way of life, however, was changed forever after Japanese researchers learned how to grow cultured pearls in 1930s. Now a collaboration between pearl traders in Japan and the United Arab Emirates had brought oyster farming and cultured pearl harvests to the UAE for the first time.