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90-556: Fakarava , Havaiki-te-araro , Havai'i or Farea is an atoll in the west of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia . It is the second largest of the Tuamotu atolls. The nearest land is Toau , a coral atoll which lies 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) to the northwest. The atoll is roughly rectangular and its length is 60 kilometres (37 miles) and its width 21 kilometres (13 miles). Fakarava has

180-582: A Catholic priest in 1849: the Rotoava church was blessed in 1850 and the Tetamanu church, dating from 1874, was built in coral. At the beginning of the 20th century, the atoll was divided into two districts: Tehatea and Tetamanu. In 2016, Fakarava became part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve created in 1977. Fakarava is a rectangular atoll 60 km long and 25 km wide. It is the second largest atoll in

270-542: A malacologist would still consider them to be pearls. Valueless pearls of this type are sometimes found in edible mussels , edible oysters , escargot snails, and so on. The GIA and CIBJO now simply use the term 'pearl' (or, where appropriate, the more descriptive term 'non-nacreous pearl') when referring to such items and, under Federal Trade Commission rules, various mollusk pearls may be referred to as 'pearls', without qualification. A few species produce pearls that can be of interest as gemstones. These species include

360-466: A metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls. Cultured or farmed pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are also widely sold in inexpensive jewelry. Pearls have been harvested and cultivated primarily for use in jewelry , but in

450-473: A South Sea pearl – as described by CIBJO and GIA – is a pearl produced by the Pinctada maxima pearl oyster. South Sea pearls are the color of their host Pinctada maxima oyster – and can be white, silver, pink, gold, cream, and any combination of these basic colors, including overtones of the various colors of the rainbow displayed in the pearl nacre of the oyster shell itself. South Sea pearls are

540-415: A beaded cultured pearl is generally a polished sphere made from freshwater mussel shell. Along with a small piece of mantle tissue from another mollusk (donor shell) to serve as a catalyst for the pearl sac, it is surgically implanted into the gonad (reproductive organ) of a saltwater mollusk. In freshwater perliculture, only the piece of tissue is used in most cases, and is inserted into the fleshy mantle of

630-456: A body color that may be assessed as silver, silver blue, gold, brown-black, green-black, or black. Black cultured pearls from the black pearl oyster – Pinctada margaritifera  – are not South Sea pearls, although they are often mistakenly described as black South Sea pearls. In the absence of an official definition for the pearl from the black all use to, these pearls are usually referred to as "black pearls". The correct definition of

720-414: A natural pearl shows a series of concentric growth rings. A beadless cultured pearl (whether of freshwater or saltwater origin) may show growth rings, but also a complex central cavity, witness of the first precipitation of the young pearl sac. Some imitation pearls (also called shell pearls) are simply made of mother-of-pearl , coral or conch shell, while others are made from glass and are coated with

810-735: A religious building in Rotoava, the Church of Saint John of the Cross ( Église de Saint-Jean-de-la-Croix ) that depends on the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Papeete with headquarters in Tahiti . The church, as its name indicates, is dedicated to a Spanish mystic saint who founded the Order of the Discalced Carmelites ( Ordo Fratrum Discalceatorum Beatissimae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo ). Like all

900-632: A shared culture and the Tuamotuan language . The Tuamotus are a French overseas collectivity . The early history of the Tuamotu islands is generally unknown. Archaeological findings suggest that the western Tuamotus were settled from the Society Islands as early as 900 CE or as late as 1200 CE. DNA evidence suggests that they were settled about 1110 CE. On the islands of Rangiroa , Manihi and Mataiva , there are flat ceremonial platforms (called marae ) made of coral blocks, although their exact age

990-475: A solution containing fish scales called essence d'Orient . A well-equipped gem testing laboratory can distinguish natural pearls from cultured pearls by using gemological X-ray equipment to examine the center of a pearl. With X-rays it is possible to see the growth rings of the pearl, where the layers of calcium carbonate are separated by thin layers of conchiolin. The differentiation of natural pearls from non-beaded cultured pearls can be very difficult without

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1080-450: A species of small pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata martensii , which is no bigger than 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) in size, hence akoya pearls larger than 10 mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. Today, a hybrid mollusk is used in both Japan and China in the production of akoya pearls. Cultured Pearls were sold in cans for the export market. These were packed in Japan by

1170-509: A spherical bead as a nucleus. Most saltwater cultured pearls are grown with beads. Trade names of cultured pearls are Akoya ( 阿古屋 ), white or golden South sea, and black Tahitian . Most beadless cultured pearls are mantle-grown in freshwater shells in China, and are known as freshwater cultured pearls. Cultured pearls can be distinguished from natural pearls by X-ray examination. Nucleated cultured pearls are often 'preformed' as they tend to follow

1260-521: A wide and deep lagoon with a surface of 1,112 square kilometres (429 square miles) and two passes. The main pass to enter the lagoon, located in its north-western end, is known as Passe Garuae and it is the largest pass in French Polynesia; the southern pass is called Tumakohua. It has a land area of 24.1 square kilometres (9 square miles). Fakarava has 837 inhabitants; the main village is called Rotoava. The Pōmare Dynasty originated here before ruling

1350-569: Is 1,400 millimetres (55 in). Although average rainfall is lowest in September and November, it does not vary markedly throughout the year. The archipelago is geologically highly stable, because it was created by the action of the Easter Fracture Zone , which is only weakly active. There have been no volcanic eruptions during recorded history. The sparse soil of the coral islands does not support diverse vegetation. The coconut palm, which

1440-601: Is a continuation of the previous one, and focuses on the unusual density of gray reef sharks (more than 700), in the same Tumakohua pass during the same period. The mission studied the social organization of sharks within a horde. James Norman Hall describes his visit to Fakarava, and the prior visit of Captain Bligh to the atoll, in "The Tale of a Shipwreck," published 1934. Tuamotu The Tuamotus have approximately 16,000 inhabitants. The islands were initially settled by Polynesians , and modern Tuamotuans have inherited from them

1530-522: Is a particularly large one weighing 14 lb (6.4 kg). The largest known pearl (also from a giant clam) is the Pearl of Puerto , also found in the Philippines by a fisherman from Puerto Princesa , Palawan Island . The enormous pearl is 30 cm wide (1 ft), 67 cm long (2.2 ft) and weighs 75 lb (34 kg). The ancient chronicle Mahavamsa mentions the thriving pearl industry in

1620-402: Is caused by the overlapping of successive layers, which breaks up light falling on the surface. In addition, pearls (especially cultured freshwater pearls ) can be dyed yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, purple, or black. The most valuable pearls have a metallic, highly reflective luster. Because pearls are made primarily of calcium carbonate, they can be dissolved in vinegar . Calcium carbonate

1710-530: Is developing a pearl farming activity – authorized on 400 ha (and fifty spat collection lines) in the northeastern part of the lagoon, near Rotoava – and sea cucumber fishing in the eastern part of the lagoon for export to Asia. The atoll has an airfield with a runway 1,400 meters long, which allows the development of tourism in all the atolls attached to the commune of Fakarava. On average, it receives about 850 flights and between 25,000 and 30,000 passengers per year, of which 20% are in transit, making it one of

1800-459: Is grown at a time. This limits the number of pearls at a harvest period. The pearls are usually harvested after one year for akoya, 2–4 years for Tahitian and South Sea, and 2–7 years for freshwater. This perliculture process was first developed by the British biologist William Saville-Kent who passed the information along to Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa from Japan . The second category includes

1890-445: Is made from layers of nacre , by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell. Natural (or wild) pearls, formed without human intervention, are very rare. Many hundreds of pearl oysters or mussels must be gathered and opened, and thus killed, to find even one wild pearl; for many centuries, this was the only way pearls were obtained, and why pearls fetched such extraordinary prices in

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1980-549: Is more valuable than these pearls. However, it is more abundant than the South Sea pearl, which is more valuable than the black cultured pearl. This is simply because the black pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera is far more abundant than the elusive, rare, and larger south sea pearl oyster Pinctada maxima , which cannot be found in lagoons, but which must be dived for in a rare number of deep ocean habitats or grown in hatcheries. Natural black pearls are rare, with black pearls having

2070-500: Is predominantly based on subsistence agriculture . The most important sources of additional income are the cultivation of black pearls and the preparation of copra . Tourism -related income remains meager, especially compared to the income generated by tourism in the neighboring Society Islands . Modest tourism infrastructure is found on the atolls of Rangiroa and Manihi , which offer recreational scuba diving and snorkeling destinations. The inhabitants of Tuamotu produce 75% of

2160-415: Is required to positively verify natural pearls found today. A keshi pearl is a pearl composed entirely of nacre and results from mishaps in the culturing process. Most are quite small, typically only a few millimeters in diameter, and are often irregular in shape. In seeding a cultured pearl, a piece of mantle muscle from a sacrificed oyster is placed with a bead of mother of pearl within a host oyster. If

2250-925: Is susceptible to even a weak acid solution because the crystals react with the acetic acid in the vinegar to form calcium acetate and carbon dioxide . Freshwater and saltwater pearls may sometimes look quite similar, but they come from different sources. Freshwater pearls form in various species of freshwater mussels, family Unionidae , which live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. These freshwater pearl mussels occur not only in hotter climates, but also in colder, more temperate areas such as Scotland (where they are protected under law). Most freshwater cultured pearls sold today come from China. Saltwater pearls grow within pearl oysters, family Pteriidae , which live in oceans. Saltwater pearl oysters are usually cultivated in protected lagoons or volcanic atolls. The mollusk's mantle (protective membrane) deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) in

2340-402: Is the basis of copra production, is of special economic importance. On a few of the islands, vanilla is also cultivated. Agriculture is generally otherwise limited to simple subsistence. Fruit and vegetable staples include yams , taro , breadfruit , and a wide range of tropical fruit. Pandanus leaves are traditionally woven together to make mats, hats, and roof thatches . However, many of

2430-618: Is the conch pearl (sometimes referred to simply as the 'pink pearl'), which is found very rarely growing between the mantle and the shell of the queen conch or pink conch, Strombus gigas , a large sea snail or marine gastropod from the Caribbean Sea . These pearls, which are often pink in color, are a by-product of the conch fishing industry, and the best of them display a shimmering optical effect related to chatoyance known as 'flame structure'. Somewhat similar gastropod pearls, this time more orange in hue, are (again very rarely) found in

2520-502: Is thought that natural pearls form under a set of accidental conditions when a microscopic intruder or parasite enters a bivalve mollusk and settles inside the shell. The mollusk, irritated by the intruder, forms a pearl sac of external mantle tissue cells and secretes the calcium carbonate and conchiolin to cover the irritant. This secretion process is repeated many times, thus producing a pearl. Natural pearls come in many shapes, with perfectly round ones being comparatively rare. Typically,

2610-589: Is unknown. The first known European encounter with the Tuamotus was with the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan , during his circumglobal voyage in 1521. His encounter was followed by visits from several other Europeans, including: None of these visits were of political consequence, as the islands were within the sphere of influence of the Pōmare Dynasty of Tahiti . The first Christian missionaries arrived in

2700-476: The Assembly of French Polynesia . The electoral district called Îles Gambier et Tuamotu Est comprises the commune of Gambier and eleven communes in eastern Tuamotu: Anaa, Fangatau, Hao, Hikueru, Makemo, Napuka, Nukutavake, Pukapuka, Reao, Tatakoto, and Tureia. The other five communes in western Tuamotu – Arutua, Fakarava, Manihi, Rangiroa, and Takaroa – form the electoral district called Îles Tuamotu Ouest . Despite

2790-516: The Broome area of Australia, while golden colored ones are more prevalent in the Philippines and Indonesia. A farm in the Gulf of California , Mexico, is culturing pearls from the black lipped Pinctada mazatlanica oysters and the rainbow lipped Pteria sterna oysters. Also called Concha Nácar, the pearls from these rainbow lipped oysters fluoresce red under ultraviolet light. Biologically speaking, under

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2880-663: The Gambier Islands are geographically part of the Tuamotus because they lie at the southeastern extreme of the archipelago , they are geologically and culturally distinct. The ring-shaped atoll Taiaro , which lies in the northwestern portion of the archipelago, is a rare example of a coral reef that has a fully enclosed lagoon. Taiaro has been officially designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1977. The Tuamotu archipelago consists of eight groups of small islands and atolls: Related island groups include: A little more than fifty atolls are permanently populated;

2970-477: The Gambier Islands to form the Îles Tuamotu-Gambier which is one of the five administrative divisions of French Polynesia . The Tuamotus are grouped into sixteen communes : Anaa ; Arutua ; Fakarava ; Fangatau ; Hao ; Hikueru ; Makemo ; Manihi ; Napuka ; Nukutavake ; Puka Puka ; Rangiroa ; Reao ; Takaroa ; Tatakoto ; and Tureia . The communes on Tuamotu are part of two different electoral districts ( circonscriptions électorales ) represented in

3060-841: The Indian Ocean in areas such as the Persian Gulf , the Red Sea and the Gulf of Mannar . Evidence also suggest a prehistoric origin to pearl diving in these regions. Starting in the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the Chinese hunted extensively for seawater pearls in the South China Sea , particularly in what is now Tolo Harbour in Hong Kong . Tanka pearl divers of twelfth century China attached ropes to their waists in order to be safely brought back up to

3150-409: The Tuamotu , after Rangiroa, with an area of 24.1 km and a lagoon of 1,121 km. The atoll has two inland passes, one in the north and one in the south. The northern passage of Garuae is the largest in French Polynesia. It is very rich in marine fauna, with rays, manta rays, barracudas, groupers, turtles and dolphins. It is an important center of sport diving. The main village is Rotoava, located to

3240-598: The Tuamotu reed warbler , and the Tuamotu sandpiper . Thirteen species are globally threatened, and one has gone extinct. All of the islands of the Tuamotus are coral "low islands": essentially high sand bars built upon coral reefs . Makatea , southwest of the Palliser Islands, is one of three great phosphate rocks in the Pacific Ocean . (The others are Banaba in Kiribati , and the island nation of Nauru .) Although

3330-437: The family Pteriidae . Freshwater pearls grow within certain (but by no means all) species of freshwater mussels in the order Unionida, the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae . The unique luster of pearls depends upon the reflection , refraction , and diffraction of light from the translucent layers. The thinner and more numerous the layers in the pearl, the finer the luster. The iridescence that pearls display

3420-407: The 19th century, Fakarava became a French territory with a population of about 375 inhabitants, which developed a small production of coconut oil (about 7 to 8 barrels per year around 1860), but became, due to its geographical position and the seaport offered by its lagoon, one of the main centers of trade in this resource and of mother-of-pearl production. The atoll was evangelized by Honoré Laval ,

3510-468: The English name Margaret . All shelled mollusks can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within its mantle folds, but the great majority of these "pearls" are not valued as gemstones . Nacreous pearls, the best-known and most commercially significant, are primarily produced by two groups of molluskan bivalves or clams . A nacreous pearl

3600-576: The Fifth Avenue mansion that is now the New York Cartier store in exchange for a matched double strand of natural pearls Cartier had been collecting for years; at the time, it was valued at US$ 1 million.) The introduction and advance of the cultured pearl hit the pearl industry hard. Pearl dealers publicly disputed the authenticity of these new cultured products, and left many consumers uneasy and confused about their much lower prices. Essentially,

3690-704: The Gambier Islands, Mangarevan is spoken, while in Puka Puka a Marquesan dialect is used. The majority of the population is Christian, including members of the Catholic Church and various Protestant groups. The Catholic Church administers 42 churches on the islands under the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Papeete. In 1833, the Catholic Church divided the Pacific into two apostolic vicariates : Western Oceania fell to

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3780-464: The Gambier Islands. This included the introduction of cotton cultivation, pearl and mother-of-pearl fishing, and the establishment of plantations and orchards. As they were very successful, their missionary activities gradually spread to the other islands of the Tuamotu archipelago. With the missionary work, news of the islands' wealth in pearls also reached Europe, making them a coveted destination for European traders and adventurers. The islands' economy

3870-519: The King found it so beautiful that he kept it for himself. Later, he elevated it to be part of the Spanish Crown Jewel. From then on, the pearl was recorded in every royal inventory for more than 200 years. According to Garcilasso de la Vega , who says that he saw La Peregrina at Seville in 1607, this was found at Panama in 1560 by a slave worker who was rewarded with his liberty, and his owner with

3960-836: The Marists and Eastern Oceania-which included the Tuamots, Hawaii, Tahiti, the Marquesas and the Cook Islands-was the responsibility of the Picpus missionaries. In 1834, the French Fathers Honoré Laval and François d'Assise Caret arrived in Mangareva. First with the acquiescence and then with the active support of the island chiefs, the Picpusians embarked on an extensive development program for

4050-517: The Tuamotu Islands, a population density of 18 inhabitants /km . The population was 14,876 in 2002 and 8,100 in 1983. In 2002, 769 inhabitants lived within 400 km of the islands of Moruroa and Fangataufa (former nuclear test base). The official language of the archipelago is French . However, the Tuamotu language , Pa'umotu, is recognized as a regional language of the French Republic. In

4140-521: The atoll is the coral outgrowth (150 m) from the top of a very small volcanic seamount of the same name, measuring 1,170 m from the seafloor, formed some 53.7–59.6 million years ago. The total population was 806 inhabitants in the 2012 census which increased to 844 people according to 2017 data. The majority of the Atoll's population is Christian as a result of missionary activity by both Catholic and Protestant groups. The Catholic Church administers

4230-518: The attractions which drew Julius Caesar to Britain. They are, for the most part, freshwater pearls from mussels. Pearling was banned in the U.K. in 1998 due to the endangered status of river mussels. Discovery and publicity about the sale for a substantial sum of the Abernethy pearl in the River Tay had resulted in heavy exploitation of mussel colonies during the 1970s and 80s by weekend warriors. When it

4320-459: The bailer shell Melo , the giant clam Tridacna , various scallop species, Pen shells Pinna , and the Haliotis iris species of abalone. Pearls of abalone are cultured pearls , or blister pearls, unique to New Zealand waters, and are commonly referred to as 'blue pearls'. They are admired for their luster and naturally bright vibrant colors that are often compared to opal . Another example

4410-435: The build-up of a natural pearl consists of a brown central zone formed by columnar calcium carbonate (usually calcite, sometimes columnar aragonite) and a yellowish to white outer zone consisting of nacre (tabular aragonite). In a pearl cross-section such as the diagram, these two different materials can be seen. The presence of columnar calcium carbonate rich in organic material indicates juvenile mantle tissue that formed during

4500-654: The busiest in French Polynesia. The landing of the Natitua submarine cable and its commissioning in December 2018 allows Fakareva to be connected to Tahiti and to global high-speed Internet. The development of tourism, with the construction of a hotel, has increased the population in recent years. In addition to tourism around diving , the economy is based on copra mining and mother-of-pearl farming. Laurent Ballesta's team has conducted two scientific expeditions in Fakarava, within

4590-487: The case. Typical stimuli include organic material, parasites, or even damage that displaces mantle tissue to another part of the mollusk's body. These small particles or organisms gain entry when the shell valves are open for feeding or respiration. In cultured pearls, the irritant is typically an introduced piece of the mantle epithelium, with or without a spherical bead (beaded or beadless cultured pearls). Natural pearls are nearly 100% calcium carbonate and conchiolin . It

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4680-428: The conjunctive tissue of the mantle, these cells may survive and form a small pocket in which they continue to secrete calcium carbonate, their natural product. The pocket is called a pearl sac, and grows with time by cell division. The juvenile mantle tissue cells, according to their stage of growth, secrete columnar calcium carbonate from pearl sac's inner surface. In time, the pearl sac's external mantle cells proceed to

4770-458: The controversy damaged the images of both natural and cultured pearls. By the 1950s, when a significant number of women in developed countries could afford their own cultured pearl necklace, natural pearls were reduced to a small, exclusive niche in the pearl industry. Previously, natural pearls were found in many parts of the world. Present day natural pearling is confined mostly to the Persian Gulf , in seas off Bahrain . Australia also has one of

4860-482: The copra of French Polynesia. It is a subsidized family activity and the only resource of the atolls farthest from the center and east. Fishing is a major activity in the atolls closest to Tahiti (Rangiroa, Arutua, Apataki), which supply the central market of Papeete. Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle ) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids . Just like

4950-503: The culturing process for them dictates a smaller volume output and they can never be mass-produced because, in common with most sea pearls, the oyster can only be nucleated with one pearl at a time, while freshwater mussels are capable of multiple pearl implants. Before the days of cultured pearls, black pearls were rare and highly valued for the simple reason that white pearl oysters rarely produced naturally black pearls, and black pearl oysters rarely produced any natural pearls at all. Since

5040-501: The development of pearl culture technology, the black pearl oysters Pinctada margaritifera found in Tahiti and many other Pacific islands including the Cook Islands and Fiji are being extensively used for producing cultured pearls. The rarity of the black cultured pearl is now a "comparative" issue. The black cultured pearl is rare when compared to Chinese freshwater cultured pearls, and Japanese and Chinese akoya cultured pearls, and

5130-490: The early stage of pearl development. Displaced living cells with a well-defined task may continue to perform their function in their new location, often resulting in a cyst . Such displacement may occur via an injury. The fragile rim of the shell is exposed and is prone to damage and injury. Crabs, other predators and parasites such as worm larvae may produce traumatic attacks and cause injuries in which some external mantle tissue cells are disconnected from their layer. Embedded in

5220-401: The form of the mineral aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite (polymorphs with the same chemical formula, but different crystal structures) held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin . The combination of aragonite and conchiolin is called nacre , which makes up mother-of-pearl. The commonly held belief that a grain of sand acts as the irritant is in fact rarely

5310-435: The formation of tabular aragonite. When the transition to nacre secretion occurs, the brown pebble becomes covered with a nacreous coating. During this process, the pearl sac seems to travel into the shell; however, the sac actually stays in its original relative position the mantle tissue while the shell itself grows. After a couple of years, a pearl forms and the shell may be found by a lucky pearl fisher. Cultured pearls are

5400-525: The framework of the Gombessa expeditions. Gombessa 2, conducted in Fakarava in 2014, on the reproduction of marbled groupers of the species Epinephelus polyphekadion , in particular their gathering and behavior before and especially during the annual spawning of females at the exit of the Tumakohua pass (the one in the south of the lagoon) during the two full moons of June and July. Gombessa 4, conducted in 2017,

5490-516: The horse conch Triplofusus papillosus . The second largest pearl known was found in the Philippines in 1934 and is known as the Pearl of Lao Tzu . It is a naturally occurring, non-nacreous, calcareous concretion (pearl) from a giant clam . Because it did not grow in a pearl oyster it is not pearly; instead the surface is glossy like porcelain. Other pearls from giant clams are known to exist, but this

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5580-454: The host mussel. South Sea and Tahitian pearl oysters, also known as Pinctada maxima and Pinctada margaritifera , which survive the subsequent surgery to remove the finished pearl, are often implanted with a new, larger beads as part of the same procedure and then returned to the water for another 2–3 years of growth. Despite the common misperception, Mikimoto did not discover the process of pearl culture. The accepted process of pearl culture

5670-587: The island of Tahiti . The atoll was first mentioned by a European on 17 July 1820 by the Russian navigator Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen , who gave it the name Wittgenstein Island. It was visited by the British sailor Ireland on 2 October 1831, who mentioned it under the same name, and then on 14 November 1835 by his compatriot Robert FitzRoy , as well as by the French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville in September 1838. In

5760-515: The islands at the beginning of the 19th century. By the late 19th century, traders had begun offering pearls from the islands for sale in Europe, and they became coveted possessions there. France forced the abdication of King Pōmare V of Tahiti and claimed the islands, but did not formally annex them. Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Stevenson travelled among the Tuamotus (then called the Paumotus) on

5850-435: The largest and rarest of the cultured pearls – making them the most valuable. Prized for their exquisitely beautiful 'orient' or lustre, South Sea pearls are now farmed in various parts of the world where the Pinctada maxima oysters can be found, with the finest South Sea pearls being produced by Paspaley along the remote coastline of North-Western Australia. White and silver colored South Sea pearls tend to come from

5940-575: The non-beaded freshwater cultured pearls, like the Biwa or Chinese pearls. As they grow in the mantle, where on each wing up to 25 grafts can be implanted, these pearls are much more frequent and saturate the market completely. An impressive improvement in quality has taken place over ten years when the former rice-grain-shaped pebbles are compared with the near round pearls of today. Later, large near perfect round bead nucleated pearls up to 15mm in diameter have been produced with metallic luster. The nucleus bead in

6030-496: The northeast near the Garuae Passage. In the southern pass is the village of Tetamanu, former capital of the island and residence of the administrator of the Tuamotu during the 19th century. The total population was 806 at the 2012 census. Fakarava is located 450 km northeast of Tahiti. Its lagoon is the second largest in French Polynesia (after Rangiroa) and covers 1,121 km. It is accessible through two passes: Geologically,

6120-498: The office of alcalde of Panama. Margarita pearls are extremely difficult to find today and are known for their unique yellowish color. Before the beginning of the 20th century, pearl hunting was the most common way of harvesting pearls. Divers manually pulled oysters from ocean floors and river bottoms and checked them individually for pearls. Not all mussels and oysters produce pearls. In a haul of three tons, only three or four oysters will produce perfect pearls. Pearls were one of

6210-486: The other islands in the archipelago, Fakarava has some of the most pristine and undisturbed coral reef ecosystems in the world. The south pass of Fakarava has been protected since 2008 and is now home to the highest concentration of Grey reef sharks in the world with an estimated 700 sharks comprising the single school that inhabits the area. This is also one of the only reefs where sharks are fully protected and can be found in anything like their historical numbers. Fakarava

6300-589: The past were also used to adorn clothing. They have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines and paint formulations. Whether wild or cultured, gem-quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent , like the interior of the shell that produces them. However, almost all species of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls (technically "calcareous concretions") of lesser shine or less spherical shape. Although these may also be legitimately referred to as "pearls" by gemological labs and also under U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules, and are formed in

6390-434: The past. Cultured pearls are formed in pearl farms, using human intervention as well as natural processes. One family of nacreous pearl bivalves – the pearl oyster  – lives in the sea, while the other – a very different group of bivalves  – lives in freshwater; these are the river mussels such as the freshwater pearl mussel . Saltwater pearls can grow in several species of marine pearl oysters in

6480-432: The pearl industry is making ongoing attempts to improve culturing technique so that keshi pearls do not occur. All-nacre pearls may one day be limited to natural found pearls. Today many "keshi" pearls are actually intentional, with post-harvest shells returned to the water to regenerate a pearl in the existing pearl sac. Tahitian pearls , frequently referred to as black pearls, are highly valued because of their rarity;

6570-403: The piece of mantle should slip off the bead, a keshi pearl forms of baroque shape about the mantle piece. Therefore, while a keshi pearl could be considered superior to cultured pearls with a mother of pearl bead center, in the cultured pearl industry the oyster's resources used to create a mistaken all-nacre baroque pearl is a drain on the production of the intended round cultured pearl. Therefore,

6660-602: The port of Oruwella in the Gulf of Mannar in Sri Lanka . It also records that eight varieties of pearls accompanied Prince Vijaya 's embassy to the Pandyan king as well as king Devanampiya Tissa 's embassy to Emperor Ashoka . Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) praised the pearl fishery of the Gulf as most productive in the world. For thousands of years, seawater pearls were retrieved by divers in

6750-404: The response of the shell to a tissue implant. A tiny piece of mantle tissue (called a graft ) from a donor shell is transplanted into a recipient shell, causing a pearl sac to form into which the tissue precipitates calcium carbonate. There are a number of methods for producing cultured pearls: using freshwater or seawater shells, transplanting the graft into the mantle or into the gonad, and adding

6840-413: The rest are occupied only sporadically, during the copra harvesting season or as a base for fishing expeditions. The population has grown in the last years due to the fishing boom in the northern part and the extraction of pearls, especially black pearls, in the west and in the center. In any case, most of the inhabitants practice subsistence agriculture. In the 2007 census, there were 15,510 inhabitants in

6930-486: The right set of circumstances, almost any shelled mollusk can produce some kind of pearl. However, most of these molluskan pearls have no luster or iridescence . The great majority of mollusk species produce pearls which are not attractive, and are sometimes not even very durable. Such pearls usually have no value at all, except perhaps to a scientist or collector, or as a curiosity. These objects used to be referred to as "calcareous concretions" by some gemologists, even though

7020-402: The roofs nowadays are made of corrugated sheet-metal.There are also mangrove forests in sheltered areas, though its less common around coral atolls. The species-rich reefs are home to a diverse range of underwater fauna. The surface creatures are primarily seabirds , insects , and lizards . The Tuamotus have 86 species of birds , ten of which are endemic , including the Tuamotu kingfisher ,

7110-549: The same way, most of them have no value except as curiosities. The English word pearl comes from the French perle , originally from the Latin perna ' leg ' , after the ham- or mutton leg-shaped bivalve . The scientific name for the family of pearl-bearing oysters, Margaritiferidae comes from the Old Persian word for pearl * margārīta- which is the source of

7200-433: The shape of the implanted shell bead nucleus. After a bead is inserted into the oyster, it secretes a few layers of nacre around the bead; the resulting cultured pearl can then be harvested in as few as twelve to eighteen months. When a cultured pearl with a bead nucleus is X-rayed, it reveals a different structure to that of a natural pearl. A beaded cultured pearl shows a solid center with no concentric growth rings, whereas

7290-462: The shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite ) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls , can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become

7380-541: The surface. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they discovered that around the islands of Cubagua and Margarita , some 200 km north of the Venezuelan coast, was an extensive pearl bed (a bed of pearl oysters). One discovered and named pearl, La Peregrina pearl , was offered to Philip II of Spain who intended to give it as a gift for his daughter on the occasion of her marriage, but

7470-810: The use of this X-ray technique. Natural and cultured pearls can be distinguished from imitation pearls using a microscope . Another method of testing for imitations is to rub two pearls against each other. Imitation pearls are completely smooth, but natural and cultured pearls are composed of nacre platelets, making both feel slightly gritty. Fine quality natural pearls are very rare jewels. Their values are determined similarly to those of other precious gems, according to size, shape, color, quality of surface, orient and luster. Single natural pearls are often sold as collectors' items, or set as centerpieces in unique jewelry. Very few matched strands of natural pearls exist, and those that do often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. (In 1917, jeweler Pierre Cartier purchased

7560-417: The vast spread of the archipelago, it covers a total land area of only about 885 square kilometres (342 sq mi). The climate is a warm tropical one, without sharply distinct seasons. The average annual temperature is a relatively continuous 26 °C (79 °F). Water sources such as lakes or rivers are absent, leaving catchments of rain as the only source of fresh water. The annual average rainfall

7650-492: The world in 1947, when the Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl , sailing from South America with a crew of five others, reached Raroia on his raft Kon-Tiki . The islands were in the news again somewhat later, when France conducted nuclear weapons testing on the atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa . French Polynesia is a semi-autonomous island group designated as an overseas country of France . The Tuamotus combine with

7740-468: The world's last remaining fleets of pearl diving ships. Australian pearl divers dive for south sea pearl oysters to be used in the cultured south sea pearl industry. The catch of pearl oysters is similar to the numbers of oysters taken during the natural pearl days. Hence significant numbers of natural pearls are still found in the Australian Indian Ocean waters from wild oysters. X-ray examination

7830-510: The yacht Casco in 1888; an account of their journey was published as In the South Seas . Jack London wrote a story, " The Seed of McCoy ", based on an incident in 1900 in which a burning ship, the Pyrenees , had been safely beached on Mangareva . In the story, London has the ship sail past Mangareva and all through the Tuamotus before beaching on Fakarava . The Tuamotus made headlines around

7920-543: Was developed by the British Biologist William Saville-Kent in Australia and brought to Japan by Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise. Nishikawa was granted the patent in 1916, and married the daughter of Mikimoto. Mikimoto was able to use Nishikawa's technology. After the patent was granted in 1916, the technology was immediately commercially applied to akoya pearl oysters in Japan in 1916. Mise's brother

8010-661: Was permitted it was carried on mainly by Scottish Travellers who found pearls varied from river to river with the River Oykel in the Highlands being noted for the finest rose-pink pearls. There are two firms in Scotland that are licensed to sell pre-1998 freshwater pearls. Today, the cultured pearls on the market can be divided into two categories. The first category covers the beaded cultured pearls, including akoya, South Sea and Tahiti. These pearls are gonad grown, and usually one pearl

8100-527: Was the first to produce a commercial crop of pearls in the akoya oyster. Mitsubishi's Baron Iwasaki immediately applied the technology to the south sea pearl oyster in 1917 in the Philippines, and later in Buton, and Palau. Mitsubishi was the first to produce a cultured south sea pearl – although it was not until 1928 that the first small commercial crop of pearls was successfully produced. The original Japanese cultured pearls, known as akoya pearls, are produced by

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