About
Tahitian pearls
Tahitian pearls are the saltwater pearls that originate
from the Pinctada margaritifera or the black-lipped
oyster. French Polynesia waters are the home of these
pearls. These pearls are also found in Cook Islands,
Panama, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, New Caledonia, Philippines and
the Gulf of Mexico. It takes about two years to harvest
the black-lipped oyster. Tahitian pearls are of gray or
black colors with green, red or blue overtones. A
fully-grown Pinctada oyster can be as big as 30
centimeters in diameter with weight exceeding 5 kilograms.
Some Tahitian oysters can weigh even up to 9 kilograms.
The production rate of pearls is much lower as compared to
the number of oysters cultivated. It is around 30% of the
number of oysters implanted.
Tahitian pearls got their name from French Polynesia’s
famous island, Tahiti, but they are not cultivated in
Tahiti. They are cultivated in remaining areas, all over
the waters of French Polynesia, a collection of islands in
the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. Tahitian pearls
have an ever-growing demand in today’s markets. In the end
of 17th century there came recurring lots of traders to
the newly discovered Pacific Islands. Traders learnt about
the wealth of the waters there in the form of
mother-of-pearl, turtle-shell, sandalwood, and natural
pearls. They started exploiting the natural resources. As
a result, pearl oysters of two islands namely Tuamotu and
Gambier quickly became to perish and nearly reached the
point of distinction. On the other hand vast Europe’s
growing demand for mother-of-pearl buttons resulted in the
exploitation of oyster islands to end up another 150
years. France gained access to these islands in 1880, now
referred as French Polynesia, and the new government took
actions to conserve these islands. Hard regulations were
applied to halt extreme fishing in and around these
islands. Certain zones were declared as off-limits so as
to allow oyster beds to repopulate. The government is
regularly exercising conservation plans on these islands.
However the islands where fishing is permitted are clearly
specified so that divers can move to work on them.
Experimentation began in Japan in the mid 20th century
using the famous techniques of Kokichi Mikimoto of the
oysters that later produced Tahitian pearls.
Japanese cultivation experts nucleated the oysters that
produced Tahitian pearls. Their effort bore fruit and at
last Tahitian cultured pearls were successfully
cultivated. As mentioned earlier Tahitian pearls develop
from the black-lipped oyster, which is nearly twice the
size of a Japanese Akoya oyster. The natural location and
habitat of this warm water species is across the central
and south Pacific with the main home in the French
Polynesia. These pearls take two to three years to develop
after nucleation. Farmers cultivate Tahitian cultured
pearls in the lagoons where ample resources are present
for healthy production. The Tahitian pearl oyster is
delicate, and sensitive to any kind of pollution, and
cannot be raised in crowded conditions. It can only be
farmed in lagoons that meet their unique climatic,
biological and ecological needs.
Tahitian pearls develop a nacre coating of about 2 to 3
millimeters in thickness. Their harvesting farms are
smaller than the farms of Akoya pearls because the oysters
are less in number. Even with less survival rate a
Tahitian oyster is capable of being nucleated 4 times.
Great care is taken while removing the pearl from the
oyster. If the technicians observe that an oyster is
healthy after removal of the pearl, then the oyster is
again nucleated just after the pearl is taken out. The
large size of the oyster allows for the development of
large pearls. The gleaming colors are unique to this
species of oyster. No chemical processing is required for
harvesting the Tahitian oysters they are simply dried,
cleaned and lightly polished. The things that make
Tahitian pearls unique among other pearls is the size of
the pearls, the mirror like shine, the color and the play
of light. There pearls are famous for their exotic color
and luster. Luster is one of the most important quality
factors of Tahitian pearls. Pearls brilliance depends on
both its luster and its orient, or a combination of
reflected, refracted and diffused light. A pearls luster
is a measure of the way its surface appears to shine,
ranging from matte to very glossy. These pearls have
varying surface qualities clean to imperfections because
of long cultivation periods. Good quality Tahitian pearls
may be free from spots, pits, bumps, wrinkles and rings. A
Tahiti pearl with proper luster should have nearly perfect
reflection of light. These pearls come in all shapes i.e.
oval, semi-round, drop, button, circle, baroque etc.
Tahitian pearls consist of thousands of layers of
aragonite. Each layer is extremely thin and appears as a
transparent film. These pearls are well known for their
interesting colors. Commonly known as “black” pearls,
Tahitian pearls black to grayish in color. Tahitian pearls
are capable of reflecting a wide range of colors at a time
such as green, peacock, olive green, blue and magenta
colors. Those pearls reflecting peacock and cobalt blue
colors are highly priced. The size of these pearls range
from 8 to 18 millimeters. The largest perfect Tahitian
cultured pearl in the world is known as the Robert Wan
Pearl. It measures 20.92mm in diameter (over 13/16 inch)
and weighs 12.5 grams, and was harvested in May 1996 at
Robert Wan's pearl farm at Nengo, atoll in the Tuamotu
Archipelago.
