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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:
There is only one criterion: the oyster must be capable of tightly closing its shell. [citation needed] Open oysters should be tapped on the shell; a live oyster will close up and is safe to eat. [citation needed] Oysters which are open and unresponsive are dead and must be discarded. Some dead oysters, or oyster shells which are full of sand ...
This species is commonly farmed and harvested for pearls, and there is general consensus that the quality of pearls from Pinctada margaritifera is the highest quality out of all the pearl oysters. Pearls form when a parasite or other irritant enters into the oyster and nacre is released by the oyster to coat the object, eventually creating a ...
There are two different color varieties: the Gold-lipped oyster and the Silver-lipped oyster. These bivalves are the largest pearl oysters in the world. They have a very strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl" and are important to the cultured pearl industry as they are cultivated to produce South Sea pearls.
Finding pearls inside oysters is a very chancy business as hundreds of shells may need to be pried open before a single pearl can be found. Most pearls are now obtained from cultured shells where an irritant substance has been purposefully introduced to induce the formation of a pearl.
Pinctada longisquamosa is a relatively small pearl oyster, with a mean length of 23 mm and a height of 20 mm. The largest recorded specimen, housed at the American Museum of Natural History, has a length of 39 mm and a height of 29 mm. Pinctada longisquamosa is noted for its radial rows of narrow shell lamellae and generally bright green to yellow coloration.
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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]