pearl farming
Growing lustrous spheres
Pearl farming is the cultivation of mollusks—typically oysters or mussels—to produce pearls.
Farmers insert an irritant into the mollusk, which coats it with nacre over several years to form a pearl.
Most pearls on the market today come from pearl farms rather than wild harvest: The bay supported a thriving pearl farming industry.
- nacreIridescent shell coating
- oysterPearl-bearing edible mollusk
- oyster bedsShellfish cultivation zones
- molluskSoft-bodied invertebrate, often shelled
- seedingPlanting or ranking
water temperature · black pearls · grafting · Mikimoto · iridescence · hatchery · aquaculture · warm waters · cultured pearls · baroque · bivalve · irritant · luxury goods · calcium carbonate · algae blooms · sustainable practices · pollution control · strand
- exportscrude oil, petroleum, natural gas, oil, gas
- aquaculturefish farms, aquaculture, fish farm, fish ponds, shrimp farms
- island economiesfishing, tourism, copra, sugarcane, shipbuilding
- Pearlspearls, cultured pearls, nacre, black pearls, white pearls
- TahitiTahiti, Bora Bora, overwater bungalow, pareo, Marquesas
- Tahiti economyblack pearls, pearls, tourism, coconuts, copra