Before oil (discovered here in 1966), the Gulf's economy was built on pearl diving. Divers would descend without equipment to the shallow pearl beds of the Arabian Gulf, staying under for a minute or more, cutting oysters, surfacing. The industry collapsed in the 1930s when Japanese cultured pearls destroyed the market. The men who built Dubai's original trading wealth came from this tradition. The sea walls in the Al Fahidi area remember it.