A Brief History of Pearls: Tahitian Pearl Harvesting

TAHITIAN PEARL HARVESTING

Harvests at Tahitian pearl farms are usually small-scale operations because the oysters used to grow them are less plentiful than other types of oysters are.

The Tahitian Pearl Harvesting Process

In order to harvest Tahitian pearls, which are kept in lagoons where black lip oysters would naturally live, pearl farmers pull them from the water and transport them to harvesting facilities.

Once they've arrived at a harvesting facility, the oysters' shells are pried apart and the pearls are removed. Harvesters use special tools to avoid damaging the pearls or the oysters that produce them.

Although relatively few black lip oysters survive the initial nucleating process, those that do and produce pearls are immediately nucleated again to produce another pearl.

Mabe Pearls and Black Lip Oysters

Some oysters are nucleated up to four times before they are discarded. The last time a black lip oyster produces a pearl, it's a mabe pearl. A mabe pearl is a half-spherical cultured pearl that grows on the oyster's inside shell rather than inside its body.