Scotland’s last pearl fisherman

Scottish freshwater pearls were said to be popular with royals and the Romans, and there was one man who knew more about them than anyone else. 

Bill Abernethy was one of the Scotland’s last professional pearl fishers, and was responsible for finding Scotland’s largest freshwater pearl in living memory – the Abernethy pearl, which was revealed to the world in the 1960s.

Pearl fishing became illegal in Scotland in 1998, bringing a close to that chapter of the country's history.

In the 1970s, Bill worked with Doug Allan, the diver and nature cameraman who many people may know from Sir David Attenborough’s landmark documentaries such as Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Life.

Doug recorded a series of interviews with Bill in 2016, a few years before the pearl fisherman died, to reveal some of the stories behind his remarkable career. For the first time, some of those interviews have now been broadcast.

Video by Graham Fraser