Pearl Farm

The Tuamotan islands are famous for their pearls so we decided to take a look at on of the pearl farms in Rangiroa.  The bus took us to a small gazebo like seating area outside of the giftshop and a tour guide told us about the difficult task of extracting a pearl from an oyster.

He explained how each oyster is specially raised for 5 years until it can produce a pearl sac.  Once   it has grown to a good size the technicians use the lip from a younger oyster (also called the graph) and insert it into the older oyster so that the pearl it will produce will have good color shinyness.



After the oysters have the graph they are placed back into the ocean with nets to keep away predators, they sit there for 2 more years until the pearl has developed enough to be extracted.  A separate technician then takes the finished pearl, determines if it is worth keeping, then places a bead, a small ball made from the shell of the oyster, into the pearl sac so that the oyster can continue producing pearls.

We watched the workers at work for a while then wandered into the shop so we could look at the finished pearl jewelry.  We mostly browsed but Nanna, my grandmother, let me pick out 2 pearls so that the lady could make them into earrings!  They are beautiful and unique, made from the black pearls of the Tuamotan atolls.