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Opening and extracting pearls from farmed pearl oysters Cultivated pearl oyster (from Japan Shima, Mie) All species within the genus produce pearls. Attempts have been made to harvest pearls commercially from many Pinctada species. However, the only species that are currently of significant commercial interest are:
Because these pearl oysters are so large, a much larger nucleus than usual can be used in culturing. Sea pearls farmed in the Philippines, typically produce golden pearls from the gold-lipped pearl oyster, which are currently experiencing a surge in popularity, resulting in increased market-demand, particularly in China.
Pinctada margaritifera, commonly known as the black-lip pearl oyster, is a species of pearl oyster, a saltwater mollusk, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae. This species is common in the Indo-Pacific within tropical coral reefs. The ability of P. margaritifera to produce pearls means that
The largest pearl-bearing oyster is the marine Pinctada maxima, which is roughly the size of a dinner plate. Not all individual oysters produce pearls. In nature, pearl oysters produce pearls by covering a minute invasive object with nacre. Over the years, the irritating object is covered with enough layers of nacre to become a pearl.
A black pearl and a shell of the black-lipped pearl oyster. The iridescent colors originate from nacre layers. All shelled mollusks can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within its mantle folds, but the great majority of these "pearls" are not valued as gemstones.
By the 1840s, the export of the shells was as valuable as the pearls extracted from them; the nacreous shells were used to make mother-of-pearl buttons for clothing. In 1874, compressed air diving equipment made harvesting the oysters easier. By the early 1900s, some 200,000 to 500,000 oysters were being harvested annually. [10]
Oyster farming is an aquaculture (or mariculture) practice in which oysters are bred and raised mainly for their pearls, shells and inner organ tissue, which is eaten. Oyster farming was practiced by the ancient Romans as early as the 1st century BC on the Italian peninsula [1] [2] and later in Britain for export to Rome. The French oyster ...
Pinctada fucata, the Akoya pearl oyster (阿古屋貝), is a species of marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. Some authorities classify this oyster as Pinctada fucata martensii (Gould, 1850). [1] It is native to shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific region and is used in the culture of pearls.