Jewelry Pearls

These days pearl farming is becoming more and more common with more people going into it. The profits are obviously attractive, but notwithstanding the profits, pearl farming has its own pitfalls and accompanying hazards including threat to the life of divers. Unlike other forms of farming like cattle farming, hog breeding or horse ranch, all practiced overland, pearl farming involves diving into sea depths of 100 to 130 feet and remaining under water for as long as three to four minutes. Though modern divers use equipment including oxygen tanks, eye gear, paddlers and others, some amount of physical threat always remain in pearl farming.

Looking at the crystal clear waters around the French Polynesian atolls, it may be difficult to imagine the dangers lurking underneath. But those who are into pearl farming knows that here in these waters, one of the best forms of pearls are produced. And that is why many are involved in pearl farming in these atolls, while the grafters’ laboratories are built on piles and located around the edge of the coral reef.

Rows of white buoys indicate the spats and the black buoys further out into the lagoon show the sign of pearl oyster banks where pearl farming takes place.

This is how the pearl farming process works:

• Production cycle begins with the cultivation of spats that provides the best pearl oysters. They need careful tendering, sorting and calibration through their period of growth before they go to the grafting process.
• Young oysters are first placed in saltwater tanks in the laboratory where grafters perform tricky surgical operations. This grafting process can only start two to three years after the pearl farming process has started.
• Grafting is a fragile process that starts by cutting small squares from the mantle of the donor oyster, and inserting a piece along with the mussel shell nucleus, into the oyster’s Gonad. The Gonad has been opened for this specialized operation.
• The oyster is then physically massaged to facilitate the healing process.
• Oysters are then placed in specially fabricated nets, allowing them to be located in various parts of the lagoon.
• Pearl farming also means constant monitoring to ensure that the oysters are doing fine.

Needless to say, pearls that are produced through pearl farming under such meticulous care surpass in quality, shape, size, color and luster as compared to those occurring under natural circumstances. Products from pearl farming fetch handsome prices in the market and carry the goodwill of the farm where they come from. Some experts believe that the best nuclei come from mussels that are grown in the Mississippi river in the US. But there are other rich areas of pearl farming as well.

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