国家地理 海湾地区重兴珍珠采集业（在线收听）

Tucked away in the United Arab Emirate's northernmost region,

在阿拉伯联合酋长国的北部地区，

a very delicate experiment is underway to bring some luster back to the region's pearl industry.

正在进行一个奇妙的实验，将会给该地区的珍珠行业增添色彩。

Since 2005, one company has been cultivating pearls commercially, the first such modern operation of its kind in the Gulf.

自2005年起，有一个公司开始商业性的养殖珍珠，在海湾地区，这还是第一次进行现代化的操作。

"Well, for thousands of years, the whole region depended and, depended totally on pearl fishing.

“几千年俩，整个地区都依靠采集珍珠。

And within a few years, let's say that two decades, because of the discovery of oil and the invention of pearl culture, the whole industry collapsed."

近几年，或者说，近20年来，由于发现了石油，整个珍珠养殖也就崩溃了。”

Al-Suwaidi says that the UAE is the first Gulf nation to renew pearl cultivation, and for good reason.

Al-Suwaidi说，阿拉伯联合酋长国是海湾地区第一个重兴珍珠养殖业的国家，而且动机很好。

His stock of over 100,000 pearl-producing mollusks are kept in pans and painstakingly cleaned and tended,

他储存了100，000能够生产珍珠的软体动物，这些软体动物被养殖在平底锅里，勤奋的繁殖，

increasing their potential to grow and produce large high-quality pearls.

增加他们生长和产生大的高质的珍珠的潜力。

Oysters are a very delicate species of mollusk whose lives and prosperities are measures of the environmental conditions they inhabit.

牡蛎是软体动物中非常奇妙的一个种类，他们的生活和习性取决于他们居住的环境。

Al-Suwaidi's business partner, Imura Daiji, says the link between the pearl and its environment is very important.

Al-Suwaidi的商业伙伴Imura Daiji说，珍珠和环境之间的联系非常重要。

The bigger and healthier the pearl oyster, the larger the pearl it can produce.

珍珠牡蛎越大，越健康，产生的珍珠也越大。

"Oyster pearl cultivation and the environment is a very very deep relationship."

“牡蛎珍珠养殖和环境之间有着非常非常密切的关系。”

The untouched quality of this protected ecosystem has allowed him

“这个不可接触的受保护的生态系统

to see a faster span of production time than he had seen in Japan, the birthplace of the industry.

使他养殖的时间比在日本见到的时间要短。日本是珍珠养殖业的发源地。”

In years past, pearl divers would plunge without apparatus more than 100 feet beneath the sea,

过去，珍珠采集者在没有装备的情况下必须潜入海面以下100多英尺的海水里寻找珍珠，

making as many as 30 or more dives a day with only an estimated…

每天要潜水30多次，估计只能采到……