Still Valuable

My time in the pearl pits, however short, has made me curious about the naga's goals. Yes, I now know that the naga want to use Nespirah as an engine of war, but if that's the case, then why are they enslaving men to mine her pearls? Assuming we escape this creature's hull, I would very much like to study these objects. The pearls we found in the pits were much too large to carry, but I've seen the warlords and prophets occasionally carrying around smaller ones.