Pearls 'R Us

The stormy weather finally subsided on Monday, June 13th and suffering from cabin fever being on the boat so long, we decided to go for a bike ride. A highly energetic Tahitian woman rents out great “cruiser bikes” for $20/day near the gas station and dingy docks in Tapuamu Bay. With steer-horn handle bars, big cushy seats, and a single gear we set off north from Tapuamu Bay (which we learned means “cut and bait” to the local fisherman). 

I think the last time I road a bike like this I was 12 years old.

The road follows along the shore and is perfectly flat so the riding was easy, although we hadn’t biked on one-speed bikes in years so our muscles were getting a work out. The scenery from island to island is fairly typical:  small concrete block houses with dense foliage, chickens running across the roads, people on scooters, and locals in Japanese pick-up trucks. Most everywhere people wave and say l’orana (hello). Whenever we stop people seem to come over to say hello and offer us pamplemousse and other fruits.

The views over the water were, as always, spectacular with the calm azure blue waters of the lagoon contrasting with the big waves breaking over the fringing reef. We soon realized we weren’t in good enough shape to make it the 40 miles around the island so we settled on just pedaling up to the small town of Patio and getting lunch from the local supermarket. We sat on a bench along the water, and realizing our ham baguette sandwiches were also full of french fries (the French love their french fries), we ended up feeding the local dogs with bits of this and that.

I explained to the host about what it was like to work in a windowless room staring at a computer screen. He said "My workplace is a little more scenic."

On the ride back we decided to stop at a pearl farm we’d seen along the waterfront. Called the Love Here Pearl Farm, it is run by a local family and turned out to be highly interesting. A women and her very handsome son patiently explained the pearl farming process and educated us to why cultured pearls are so expensive given all the work it takes to culture and harvest them.

Compared to the beautiful jewels they produce, actual pearl shells are kind of ugly. 

It takes surgical precision to open the live pearl shell just 2 to 3 centimeters and insert the mantle and nucleus pieces.

Here a piece of mantel is removed from a donor shell and the black portion is scraped off.

The mantle piece is then inserted against the gonad and the nucleus bead is placed against that. This is normally done with the shell only open 2 - 3 centimeters.

Essentially the pearls are artificially inseminated by taking a tiny piece of mantle from a donor pearl and placing it into the shell in a special location (by the gonad, the reproductive organ of a pearl). Against this is placed a pea-sized nucleus bead made made from a very specific type of mussel shell grown only in the Mississippi River. The pearls only allow themselves to be pried open about 2 - 3 centimeters so placing the mantle piece and nucleus bead takes time and surgical precision. 

The inseminated shells are then placed in mesh frames and hung in deep water for up to a year.

The pearls are then placed inside mesh net frames and hung from buoys in up to 80 foot of water inside the lagoon where the oyster secretes layers of nacre, the shiny substance that gives pearls their unique luster.

The hosts explain how they select and grade the pearls. 

Pearls are graded on size, shapes, lustre, color, and quality (imperfections)

I didn't bother to ask what this little puppy sold for.

One of the most popular purchases in the stores are the single pearl necklaces.

The pearls come in every imaginable shape, size, color, and price.

During the six month maturation process divers go out and clean the mesh nets of seaweed, barnacles, and other pollutants and check on the progress of the pearls. 

According to RawPearls.com:  

“Of the millions of oysters nucleated every year, only a tiny fraction of them produce high grade pearls. On average, about half of the nucleated oysters do not even survive to bear pearls. Less than five percent of the survivors yield pearls of the ideal shape, lustre, and colour to be considered fine quality. The few pearls that make the cut are then cleaned, soaked and sorted.”

As you might image, black pearls from the South Pacific are very expensive, even when you are here where they are grown. The best prices are found in the Tuamotus and Gambier atolls, home to a myriad of pearl farms. The problem is you typically have to go from house to house finding out which workers have secreted away some select samples during their work, as the actual pearl farms are prohibited from selling them direct to the public.

We had purchased a beautiful set of colored-hue black pearls for our daughter, but when we went back to the same store in Papeete to get some for Meryl the prices had skyrocketed, or maybe we just got a great deal on the first set. Anyways, we are still looking for that perfect strand for Meryl.