Filed in archive Water Adventures by Terah Shelton on August 23, 2007

I've been promising myself a much needed vacation to Maui for a few years now. Besides the warm weather, enchanting beaches, and outdoor activities, I have another reason to go - for the black coral.

I'm a bit of a tomboy, but the one piece of jewelry I will wear are bracelets. So, when I read this article about a former dive shop turned jewelry store, I was intrigued. This has very little to do with the outdoors, but the "dive shop" attracts over 150,000 people per year. Also, for scuba divers, the corals - of different colors - found in the Hawaiian waters sell for $80 to $3,000.

It started as a simple dive shop in 1958, taking tourists and locals on scuba tours in the Pacific Ocean off Maui. But a year after opening for business, Maui Divers workers found what resembled a black bush in deep waters off the Molokai Channel.

Maui Divers began harvesting the black coral, gave up the scuba tours, and opened jewelry stores to sell the coral in rings, pendants and necklaces. The company is now the world's largest manufacturer of black coral jewelry and Hawaii's largest jewelry retailer. It has more than 60 stores and kiosks in nearly every tourist spot in the islands, from the Dole Plantation on Oahu to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Visitor Center on the Big Island.

More than 150,000 people a year also visit the company's 12,000-square-foot design center in Honolulu, near Waikiki. Visitors can watch a video about the company's history, observe jewelers making the pieces and see the 3,000 designs on display in row after row of glass cases.

The company also has been successful with Pick-A-Pearl stands, where customers pay $13 to buy an unopened oyster and whatever pearl they find inside, and half of those customers then buy a pendant or other jewelry to mount the pearl, with the average buyer spending $150, Taylor said.

Despite overharvesting problems with black coral in the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere, the coral found in Hawaii has been well-maintained, said Richard Grigg, University of Hawaii oceanographer and coral reef specialist. "Black coral in Hawaii is a small pocket that just seems to work," he said.

The coral is a living organism that attaches itself to rocks in deep ocean water and grows like a plant. It isn't supposed to be harvested unless it's 4 feet high or about 19 years old, Grigg said.

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