Diving For Pearls

For Kino and Juana, a pearl seems to be the potential answer to prayers, but to get a pearl Kino needs to dive. Kino’s method to retrieving an oyster that could hold a precious pearl on the sea floor was risky. It required him to hold his breath for nearly two minutes. “He took his rock in one hand and his basket in the other, and he slipped feet first over the side and the rock carried him to the bottom.” This quote on page sixteen of The Pearl shows the method he took to reaching the pearls. From then it was a game of chance when choosing which oyster could hold the important pearl. There is a history of diving for pearls that goes back for centuries. Many different people in numerous cultures searched for these beauties, but because the
oysters that created them lived on the sea floor it required deep diving. Many threats of diving included running into dangerous sharks, having an unfortunate run in with poisonous jellyfish, and contracting decompression sickness. The symptoms of the illness nicknamed “the bends” are muscle and joint pain, cramps, numbness, nausea, and paralysis. Due to these threats, slaves were usually sent to do the diving. Despite the threats, it did not stop those wanting the coated grains of sand because of the payout that came with trading them.