After the exciting morning dive, we visited a pearl farm in the afternoon and learned all about how pearls are made and, of course, got some souvenirs. The pearl farming business is fascinating. The Japonese figured it out by studying the natural process. They then created a way to replicate and optimize the process. Essentially, farmed oysters are surrogate mothers to implanted nuclei (from a certain mussel in the Mississippi River) and graft (the gooey part that produces the color coating) from a favored colored oyster shell. Once inserted, nature resumes its work for eighteen months after which the pearl is harvested and a new nucleus of the same size as the removed pearl is inserted. Each oyster can withstand this process 3-4 times. Then the oyster meat can be eaten and the oyster is retired. The result of this is the "black pearl" which can range from almost white to almost black with tints of green, blue, purple, etc in the spectrum. Pearls are rated based on their uniformity and priced accordingly. After learning about pearl farming, it made pearl shopping more interesting and enlightened so we feel more connected to our lovely souvenirs.
