THE WORLD’S ONLY LIVING GEM

Ever since this precious orb was discovered, gleaming inside its oyster, humans have been captivated by its natural beauty and distinct qualities.

A TIMELESS TREASURE

People believe the first pearls were discovered by those looking for food along the seashore. As the world’s oldest gem, revered long before written history, pearls were the first treasures coveted by ancient Chinese, Persian and Roman civilisations, but because they were rare and expensive, it was only the very wealthy who could afford them. Throughout the ages, pearls have been associated with purity and femininity. These lustrous orbs, prized for their beauty and rarity, used in jewellery and adornments for centuries, have shown no signs of waning in popularity.

A SYMBOL OF BEAUTY, GRACE AND SOPHISTICATION

In many cultures, pearls graced the necks of royalty and nobility, who considered them a mark of prestige and status. Their timeless appeal is apparent in both the classic and contemporary world of fashion and jewellery designs. Today, pearls are not just a symbolof luxury, but a versatile accessory that can be worn in various styles, adding a touch of elegance to any ensemble.

IT ALL BEGINS WITH A GRAIN OF SAND…

Pearls are formed inside the shells of certain molluscs when an irritant, such as a grain of sand, enters the shell. The mollusc secretes layers of nacre, a combination of calcium carbonate and proteins, to coat the irritant and create a pearl.

TYPES OF PEARLS

Pearls fall into two main categories –natural and cultured. Natural pearls are the rarest and most valuable, take years to form, and are found in the wild. Only one in every 10,000 oysters will produce a pearl spontaneously. Of that number, even fewer will be round and lustrous enough for fine quality jewellery, making them sought after by collectors and enthusiasts. Natural pearls are less round and smaller than their cultured counterparts. In the wild, pearl-producing molluscs have a much slimmer chance of creating a fully-developed pearl due to natural predators or poor water conditions.

Cultured pearls involve the human element of artificially inserting a small bead or tissue into the mollusc to trigger pearl formation, under very controlled conditions. The pearls produced are still genuine and made of nacre. Cultured pearls can be found in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, and are more readily available and affordable, compared to natural pearls.

TYPES OF CULTURED PEARLS

The introduction of cultured pearls in the 1900s turned the pearl industry on its head, causing the value of natural pearls to plummet initially. Today, nearly 99 percent of all pearls in the market are cultured. Natural pearls are rare now, and are obviously more valuable.

AKOYA PEARLS

Japanese entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto, son of a noodle maker, created the first perfectly round, cultured pearl in 1893, and began farming them in 1916. He was responsible for the boom in the cultured pearl industry in Japan and the world.

At the beginning, he had to constantly defend against accusations that his pearls were not “real”. But scientists concurred that these pearls had the exact same properties as those formed naturally, with the only difference that humans “assisted” in their creation under controlled conditions. It finally became widely accepted that cultured pearls were just as valuable as natural ones.

in their creation under controlled conditions.It finally became widely accepted thatcultured pearls were just as valuable asnatural ones.

The classic white pearls sought by customers are produced by the Akoyaoyster, Pinctada fucata. These pearls are typically farmed in colder water than other marine-cultured pearls, and have a thin nacreous coating. Akoya pearl farming isnow present in Japan, China, Vietnam and the UAE.

SOUTH SEA PEARLS

These pearls are larger and thicker than the Akoya pearls, because the oyster, Pinctada maxima, in which they grow, are bigger, and the long growth period allows more nacreous overgrowth. They also come in a variety of colours, from a pearly white to silver, even champagne and gold-tinted ones, depending on the oyster. Where Akoya pearls rarely come in sizes greater than 10 millimetres, South Sea pearls can easily reach sizes of up to 20 millimetres. These pearls are cultivated in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar.

BLACK PEARLS

Also known as Tahitian pearls, black pearls were successfully cultivated from the black-lipped oyster, Pinctada margaritifera, in French Polynesia in 1961. Though they are termed “black”, they really produce an incredibly wide range of iridescent colours, and can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from six to 20 millimetres. Today, they are farmed in French Polynesia,Mexico, Fiji and Micronesia.

FRESHWATER PEARLS

These gems are cultivated in freshwater mussels, Hyriopsis cumingii, in rivers, lakes and ponds. Although it was first started in Japan, China is now the leading producer of freshwater pearls. It is the only tissue-nucleated (instead of the bead) cultured pearl in the world that produces solid, crystalline nacre, making it incredibly durable. The entire soft body of the mussel is seeded with multiple donor tissues on each side of the shell, and one mussel can produce as many as 50 pearls at a time! The sheer volume of pearls produced has certainly overshadowed any other type of cultured pearl in the world.

One other special characteristic of freshwater pearls is their highly irregular shapes. Solid-nacre pearls do not have the “nucleus template” to form the perfectly round shape of marine-cultured pearls, so the majority of freshwater harvests produce baroque pearls. This irregular, uneven nacreous coating makes them one-of-a-kind. Cultured seawater pearls can also be baroque, but tend to be teardrop-shaped because of the spherical “irritant”introduced into the oyster.

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By Julia Footnick

At least one billion people depend on fish for their main protein source, and many economic sectors depend on the oceans: fisheries, maritime transport, scientific and technological sectors, and tourism. These resources need to be managed, so they are sufficiently protected and available for future generations, but also continue to sustain the people who rely on them today.

What is the Blue Economy?

The expression “blue economy” was coined in 2011 to introduce the concept of a new kind of economy based on the efficient use of ocean resources for sustainable development. It became goal #14 in the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030: “Life below Water – to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. Marine tourism, and the dive industry in particular, are important participants, significantly contributing to local economies, but also instrumental in supporting improved social wellbeing and livelihoods, and of course, marine conservation.

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