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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In this Wednesday, April 4, 2012 photo, Daiji Imura, Japanese pearl specialist and director of the board of RAK Pearls Holding, climbs down the staircase of a restaurant decorated with oyster shells in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Long before the discovery of oil transformed the Gulf, the region's pearl divers were a mainstay of the economy. Their way of life, however, also 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 to the UAE for the first time.

Kamran Jebreili / Associated Press

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