The Story of the Biggest Pearl in the World!

Hello there and I am very happy to be back in the Blogging saddle! Today I would like to add my commentaries on a recent news that has garnered world attention (in a positive way): the story of the World’s Biggest & Most Humongous Natural Pearl!

This particular pearl is said to weigh in at 34 kilos (a whopping 75 pounds!), which means it is heavier than my 10-year old daughter Jessica. What kind of animal could have made such a humongous pearl? The only mollusk with the size to make this miracle possible is the “Giant Clam” (Tridacna gigas), and the story of a Philippine fisherman and this pearl has –by now- become famous. Many news sites have shared the news, but few have offered a full account of the story, the one I believe had the best account was the Spanish version of BBC News.

And the thing I liked the most about this story has less to do with the pearl and more to do with the Human story that surrounds the pearl.

A New Myth In the Making

It is said that a fisherman was out there doing his “thing” when a storm approached, so he had to return to land. Fortunately for him –in this case it is!- his anchor would not dislodge from the bottom so he could not leave, so he had to dive into the waters to remove the anchor and to his surprise he found a clam had bitten his anchor. What to do next? Obviously he was in a rush to finish this so he picked up the clam, placed it in his boat and then sailed back home; just one small issue that got into my mind: the pearl itself weighs in at 34 kilos/75 pounds and so…just how BIG was the clam?!?!?!?! I mean, these clams can attain a weight of some 300 kilos/661 pounds (some have been said to even reach 400 kilo/881 pounds!) so, it is very likely the clam was a very large one…how could he lift it up from the bottom? How could he manage to raise it up into the boat??? I can almost imagine the fishermen with an average height and weight of 1.70 meters (5.5 feet) and 65 kilos (143 pounds), hauling up this massive animal from out of the water! And it is this is just what makes me think that this entire story is more myth than reality, but this is still a Fantastic & Loveable Story.

Thus, this unnamed fisherman goes back home with this giant clam, unloads it from his boat and hopefully takes it home in a pick up truck (hope some friends helped him with it and they did not leave to their homes since a storm was approaching). He probably prepared the delicious meat of the clam but finding this unusually large and extremely weird shaped pearl was a thing to remember I imagine!

Now, quite differently to a regular person, this man doesn’t rush out to find a buyer for this great treasure but instead decides to keep this one as a very big lucky charm and places it under his bed for the next 10 years.

Why would he do such a thing?!?!?!? Well, to attract Luck! In some cultures pearls are considered to be great good luck charms that extend their powers even unto the whole family, but the pearl has been appraised at around $100 million dollars…that is sufficiently lucky in my book. Now, unless the pearl has been appraised by a reputable Gem Lab (GIA, SSEF, etc.) I would never pay for one of these giant clam pearls…I would actually only go far as to pay $10 million tops.

What made this man change his mind about the pearl??? A twist of fate: his house burned down. He felt the pearl had not brought him the luck he desired so he decides to give it to the local Touristic authorities, for the good of the whole town of Puerto Príncipe, in Palawan, Philippines. This is an incredibly good willed gesture…unless it may end up burning the entire village (this is absolutely a joke). So far it has begun to work by attracting regional tourism into the town.

What do you think of this story? Do you believe that a lone fisherman found this huge pearl? Is it a real pearl or a polished shell hoax? Whatever the answers are I believe this is one great story!

Technorati Tags: natural pearl,Palawan,giant pearl,Phillippines,Tridacna gigas,giant clam

Technorati Tags: perla natural,tridacna gigas,Filipinas,Palawan,perla gigante

The Best Cortez pearls of all: 2008-2015

I take off this week by continuing were last I left my blog entry…in an engagingly erotochromic post about the most beautiful Cortez Cultured Pearls of All times!

And we are going to start with the pearl that I personally believe is the MOST BEAUTIFUL CORTEZ CULTURED PEARL that we have ever produced from this farm. And this pearl was produced from the…

2008 Pearl Harvest

Before I tell you about this amazingly, stunningly beautiful pearl I will recount you of hurricane “Julio”, one of the fiercest hurricanes to have hit Guaymas. But fortunately this damage was done after we had harvested our pearls.

This particular pearl is prominently featured in our original “Sea of Cortez Pearl Video” and appeared several times in a thread over at the Pearl-Guide.com forum. It was part of a group of drop shaped pearls that I fondly called the “Drop Dead Gorgeous Pearls”.

This particular beauty had a striking luster to it -all-natural as expected- and at its base it had a very dark purple blue color that started changing into a rainbow of colors until the very tip became a beautiful lavender-pink color, and features amazing overtones. The pearl measures 9.5 mm at its widest and the colors are absolutely EROTOCHROMIC.

I was truly happy to sell this particular pearl to a very good pair of “pearly foster parents” that live in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Holy Land…to me this had a special meaning and over the years this couple became one of my dearest friends. Nora had the pearl set into a pendant-pearl enhancer to use with her Akoya pearl necklace for a very beautiful and striking piece.

The pearl is named “Epyolotli” which is the Nahuatl (Aztec) word for “Pearl” and it means “Heart of the Pearl Oyster”. I really like this name.

2009 Harvest

Then, a year later we also had more splendid pearls…not a single pearl that was equal to Nora’s 2008 pearl but that year was marked by larger than usual pearls.

2009’s largest and most beautiful pearl was sold to one of our US based buyers and I called it “La Bella” or “The Beautiful”: a lustrous, shiny 12 mm near-round pearl with a dark-green body color and a vibrant violet color.

Here you can see “La Bella” next to other gem grade Cortez pearls of around 10 mm in diameter.

That particular year we barely avoided the farm’s destruction by the disastrous effects of hurricane “Jimena”, which destroyed much of our State’s infrastructure . Guaymas was ravaged by it, so I may not have talked much about this particular pearl. Too much going on.

2010 Harvest

This was –for most Mexicans I believe- a year of shadows and lights: this year marked the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and 200th anniversary of our Independence from Spain, so it was supposed to be a year of celebrations…but we were in trapped in a terrible economic recession and in the midst of violence –in some parts of our country, but not really around our area- due to the drug trafficking cartels.

But while trapped under conditions we could not help improve (we could neither issue moral fiber –nor brain matter- to our so called leaders) we kept doing what we believe in: growing beautiful and sustainable Cortez Pearls. That year’s harvest was really good and we had one particular pearl that I named as “Matrioshka”, a unique Russian doll-shaped dark purple pearl with beautiful green overtones.

I simply loved this pearl and its name just came out of my mouth when I took it out of it’s mother oyster. Measuring at around 10.5 mm it was purchased by my very good friends Jeremy (CEO of Pearl Paradise.com) and Hisano Shepherd, who had the pearl fitted into a lovely and colorful design made by Hisano. I was so happy to see this amazing pearl become a work of art! The chain actually paid the pearl a fitting homage by also having its contour. Lovely piece isn’t it???

2011 Harvest

The year 2011 was yet another challenging year. I actually don’t want to even talk about some of the things that happened, but I also mark this year as the beginning of my “personal awakening”,  so it was kind of waking up from a terrible nightmare and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  One must really be grateful for the “bad times” since they actually build up your character and allow you to become a better version of yourself.

2011’s best pearl was an incredibly erotochromic pearl. A chunky baroque pearl that was so dramatically different that it was like watching a person with a dual personality.

On one of its sides it was a beautiful cyan-true blue color and on its other side it had the same blue with golden and bright violet.

This pearl was purchased at the 2011 Pearl Ruckus by my friend Cathy. I don’t know if she gave this pearl a name but I had called it “Chunky”…I know! Not a glamorous name for a beautiful pearl but to me this name is really special…a pet name of sorts for someone I love.

2012 Harvest

Our worries were definitively not over. This year I fell ill and I was unable to photograph much of the pearls form this harvest. I don’t even recall a personal favorite pearl at all!

Probably the most relevant photo I have is of a group of light colored pearls with a much more colorful pearl. But the photo is simply too bad, totally missing its focus from the beautiful blue pearl in the group.

But life carries on and on…the next year I saw a major improvement in my health. I truly thank God for allowing me to continue walking on this beautiful blue planet of ours.

Harvest 2013 – Down Under!

The year 2013 was marked by a good harvest: large and colorful pearls with high Chroma. And that year was also marked by having some of the best pearls shipped all the way to Adelaide, Australia.

This lovely trio of pearls went to a my dear friend: Dyann Pryor. And she has great taste in pearls! So, it was fitting to have these incredibly colorful pearls.

You can see some of “Raw Pearls” beautiful Cortez Pearl jewelry line if you visit their site.  I never had the chance to name the pearls…they just left so suddenly.

2014 Harvest

Last year’s harvest was the most abundant ever, reaching 5 kilos of Cortez Pearls. We also had some amazingly colorful pearls and also…who can forget the largest Cortez Cultured Pearl ever?!?!?!? Even if this large pearl was not the prettiest it was definitively out-of-the-ordinary. Here you can see “The Hulk” next to 4 smaller pearls (10, 9 and 8.5 mm) and it just looks Huge!

I named this pearl “the Hulk” due to its purple-green coloration and large size, but for a fleeting moment I considered the name “Barney” (yes, I believe I still suffer from the time spent watching the toddler’s TV program with my children…years go).  Decided to go all out on “The Hulk” since it just sounds more butch than “Barney”.

Specs: Baroque shaped, 17.1 mm in diameter, low luster B+ grade pearl.

Harvest 2015

Now, nearing the end of this story I can try to express some feelings I may have regarding these two posts: it has been over two decades of growing Cortez cultured pearls in the rich waters of the Gulf of California. It has been a story of both beauty and challenges so in essence it is Life itself for us.

For me each pearl harvest reminds me of certain periods of my life and I can re-live and feel the excitement of the “research days” when everything was new and we were making “pearl history”, I can also retell the pain of the “bad years” and –finally- also experience the calmness of my more “experienced years”.  Each one of these pearls in itself retells my personal story, just like a photograph reminds you of certain events and how you looked and felt like.

So, what do I want to say with this? That “Pearls are Like a Snapshot of a Person during a given moment of their Life”… Pearls are Your Personal History: the good, the bad and the experience you gain during life.  I don’t know if any other gemstone is the same, but for me this is True.

So now I finish up with the way all of this began, with a beautiful erotochromic pearl that will soon depart to its new proud owner in the United States…it has been named “Flamingo Silk” by its new owner, Nancy A.

Closing Remarks

I hope you have enjoyed this walk through memory lane and I thank you for listening a bit about my personal story…using my naturally colorful Cortez Pearls as stepping stones.

Until next time.

The Best Cortez pearls of all: 1995-2007

Technorati Tags: Cortez Pearls,pearl farm,Guaymas,natural colors,erotochromic,Pteria sterna,rainbow lip

Just a couple of days ago I published a photo of a single pearl…but not just of any kind of pearl, but rather of THE BEST PEARL OF 2015 and this beautiful bicolored pearl had a major impact amongst those that follow me on Twitter (@DouglasMcLaurin) and Facebook: in just a couple of days it was seen and shared by about 7 thousand people.

And this made me think back and remember certain pearls of previous pearl harvests that have been just as beautiful and colorful and that I call “Erotochromic”. Of course, they are always unique and different in their beauty. At that moment I told myself: “I have never reported those pearls like I have done this year and there might be more people that could find this information interesting”.

And so I told myself: I have to make a blog post to show others these very special and “Erotochromic” pearls that we have been harvesting for many years. Unfortunately it was not until 2007 when I finally had a good enough digital camera to shoot photos, and this ultimately means I do not have good photos of all these amazing pearls and some simply will reside in my memory.

So here goes part 1 of these Special Erotochromic Cortez Pearl Collection.

“Pinky” - 1995

Let me start with a bit of history: back in 1995 we were already producing our first experimental cultured pearls using our “Rainbow Lip Oyster” or Pteria sterna. I had this small group of 32 oysters and I was lucky enough to produce several pearls from these and there was this particular pearl…oval shaped and just 7 mm in diameter (those days our beads were very small (5 mm). I called it “Pinky” because of its delicate violet overtone…and my particular fondness for “Pink Floyd”.

I consider this petite beauty as our 1st Gem Pearl and I am proud to be its “dad” and not having sold it. “Pinky” is being exhibited at our jewelry store & Pearl Farm in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico and its value transcends its mere economic value: this is the 1ST GEM PEARL produced in Mexico and Latin America and –if we just consider Marine Pearls, as opposed to Freshwater pearls- “Pinky” is also the 1st CULTURED GEM GRADE PEARL GROWN IN THE AMERICAN CONTINENT.

Harvest of 2000

Back in the day we had no idea of “christening” our pearls with a name of their own. We had –of course- heard of famous pearls that had a unique name (“La Peregrina”, “The Big Lemmon”, “Hope Pearl”, etc.) but this was an idea we had yet to fully mature into action, but we already had “Pinky” and “Bebé” (“Baby” this one I will leave for another story…a sad one) with their unique names.

That year we officially had our 1st COMMERCIAL PEARL HARVEST and it was also the year we had our “Perlas del Mar de Cortez” trademark and Logo. That year we had several amazing pearls but I remember these two:

These round pearls barely exceeded 8 mm and 8.8 mm, one was violet with a dark green overtone and the other one had a fantastic dark green-blue color with golden-violet overtones. Both had excellent natural luster and were flawless…where are they today I wonder???

Harvests 2001-2003

Those were chaotic years for me and I did not have any precise records of the harvests. There is a whole story behind this but just so you understand a bit: in 2001 I left this beautiful pearl farming venture behind, said goodbye to all my friends and I started a new career in the touristic industry and then in education. Because of this I did not participate in the production nor harvests nor in certain catastrophic events such as hurricane “Marty” in 2003.

So, from the photographic records of Enrique and Manuel I was able of “rescuing” some amazingly beautiful specimens such as this oval shaped 8 mm “Gem+ NS” grade Cortez Pearl (“NS” stands for “National Selection” or you can simply translate it into another “+”, and this sub-grade is given to the most colorful –or “Erotochromic” pearls), this pearl was harvested in 2003 and was taken with the help of a professional camera (you can see the size of the lens on the pearl’s reflection).

The photo below shows some of the most “Erotochromic” pearls of 2002:

Up until this moment we did not name our best pearls systematically…and there is no obligation to do so yet. It is something that has to “feel right”.

Harvest 2004

This year was very interesting for us all: I returned to my post and became a “Founding Partner” (for the first time ever the farm was ours) and we had the help of our friend Alberto Tirado who helped shoot some professional looking  photos than those we obtained from our trusty Sony “Mavica” digital camera (it had a 3 1/4” floppy!) that took these amazing 640 x 480 pixel photos (half a Meg!) but its lenses were really good for zooming.

Here I have the best 4 pearls of the Year 2004…

Harvest 2005

Back then I still did not own a good enough digital camera. I had purchased an HP 2 Megapixel digital camera that took good enough outdoor photos but not on close-ups of pearls. Some of the best –and largest- pearls of this particular year appear on this photo. This year we start seeing pearls in sizes larger than 10 mm and up to 14 mm.

Harvest 2006

I finally have a nicer camera. I still own a Cannon digital camera with 8 megapixels with a good enough zoom lens. Here I present you with the most beautiful and colorful photos of the harvest…and many are clearly “Erotochromic”.

What is “Erotochromia”??? Well, I basically came up with this word about a week ago when I was looking at this year’s beautiful “bi-colored” pearl. I have defined it as a “Very pleasant and Intense color with a sensuous expression”. You may say this is just non-sense (you have a right to do so) but to me this is very real: these are pearls with such beauty  that just make my eyes turn white. Photos are simply not enough to show you’re their beauty…which –after all- is totally Dynamic.

For a short moment I believe I should have called them “Chromorgasmic” but thought otherwise.

Harvest 2007

Our harvests have slowly improved with every year: with more experience comes better judgment and even some technological improvements; under the threat of climate change we have tried to adapt to a changing environment by using different aquaculture techniques and methods. Overall, the size of our pearls has increased to an average size of 9 mm(up from 8 mm), and our pearl shapes have become softer too (initially our usual shape was of BAROQUE  shapes -80%-and now we are down to 60% and our Baroques look symmetric) and the luster and skin beauty have also improved.

On the photo above we arranged the pearls in a way that you can appreciate the range of colors we obtained in 2007’s Cortez Pearl Harvest, but you can easily id the most colorful ones.

Closing Remarks: This has been a very quick recap of some of the best Cortez Pearls of for 12 years. These Special Pearls are the ones that helped us trace a route to where we want to arrive…the “goal-setters”. What was our initial passion??? It is still the same as it was years ago: To produce the most beautiful naturally colored cultured pearls in the World, pearls that will cut your breath short…

In my next post you will see more pearls that have their own names and that defined that year in pearls. I hope you have enjoyed this small stroll through our harvests, so until next time

2011 Cortez Pearl Harvest & Elisabeth Strack’s Visit

There are few moments as exciting to a Pearl Farmer as that of  the time to harvest his pearls. This means the culmination of 4 years of taking care of your pearl oysters, years of worries caused by natural phenomena (the "Niño" and "Niña" years, as well as from hurricanes and tropical storms) or human causes. It is at this moment when we can take a deep breath and feel our pressure lowering in relief, only to be replaced by heavy-breathing and an increased heart-rate, but this time caused by the hope of finding that pearl that John Steinbeck referred to as the "Pearl of the World", as described in his novel “The Pearl”, that huge, beautiful & flawless pearl that Kino finds after years of pearl fishing.

And apparently, we are not alone in expecting such a yearly precious event –since it only takes place during the month of June- because this year we were truly honored to be visited by the great German gemologist Elisabeth Strack, author of a book that is considered –by most- as "The Bible of Pearls”, a book for all lovers of this amazing organic gem: "Perlen" (in German) or "Pearls" (in English). Unfortunately there are no editions in other languages, but this is an awesome book that has a great quantity and quality of information about all types of pearls.

And, at this point I don't know if I can say  if you do not say whether Elisabeth had bad or good luck -it will depend on her personal opinion- during her second visit to our pearl farm, because she arrived on the first day of June, and at that time we also had the visit of Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, in Guaymas; this due to the fact we were also celebrating the “Day of the Navy”, so she had the chance to see a whole array of sailors, armored vehicles, navy helicopters and warships in Guaymas. Regardless of her opinion, she did bring us "good luck", as this year’s pearl harvest seems as it will become the best of our history, at least in color and beauty of the harvested pearls.

 

The Motives

Elisabeth Strack visited us because she has been working on her book’s second edition, and updated data and information is much required and this cannot be gathered just by hearsay. When at the first day of harvest with us, she noticed that some of the colors on our pearls just seemed to be impossible: because she just could not believe some of the colors she was seeing... even when she saw the pearls just coming out of our pearl oysters. And I assume that is a  normal reaction for people who have seen pearl harvests in other types of pearl oysters, such as those from the Pinctada genus, or from pearly-mussels (Family Unionidae), but this was her first time watching cultured and natural pearls come out from our "Rainbow Lipped Pearl Oyster” (Pteria sterna). This incredible color saturation is observed even in the shells of this year’s oysters.

 

Cortez Pearl Harvest 2011

And I was wondering if you've seen how pearls are harvested here in Guaymas? We have several videos available on YouTube, but this is probably my favorite from the 2009 harvest:

Cultured Pearl Harvest Video

And mentioned that Elisabeth was amazed with the natural colors of our pearls as it is rare to find such a variety of colors on a single crop in just one location. The "black pearl" of French Polynesia are mainly dark, but each atoll can produce a certain range of colors. Here in Guaymas we have been blessed with every imaginable body-color and overtones on our pearls. And as a sampler we have some photos...

On the photo above, a beautiful dark purple pearl, with three pearl behind it: one green, a “red” one and a blue colored one.

A couple more photos, now one with our so called “Yori” or “white pearls”, always displaying green and pink overtones.

And I must make it very clear that the pearls came out with the colors you are seeing, they were not processed in any way: not polished (to improve their luster or "make them shiny"), there were not "bleached" chemically to make them white, nor stained/dyed to darken them. They are simply the result of an amazing natural pigmentation process.

These pearls belong to the group of “Green” pearls, but our “green pearls” are very different from the typical Tahitian "green” pearl because Cortez Pearls tend to be brighter, not the “dark-black” color. Our greens also mix with other colors, making them uniquely different.

These last pearls have a reddish body color (violet) with green overtones, leaning towards the “Peacock” color of Tahitian Pearls but not exactly...they are also unique. It seems that this year this Red color will be rather generous. The "red pearls" or "Cranberry”  are incredibly rare, so most of those seen for sale have an artificial color (and you can tell it is), but here in Guaymas we are fortunate enough to produce a dozen or so with this “cranberry” color per year.

 

Additional Notes

And Elisabeth returned to Germany, but before she did she also updated her knowledge on Authentic Mexican-Sonoran Food (unlike the variety they serve in Germany), allowing her taste buds to indulge in the sinful dishes served at our favorite restaurant ("Los Arbolitos de Cajeme"): a “tower” of fresh sea-scallops, fresh tomatoes and avocado slices with some spicy olive-oil dressing, shrimp and smoked-marlin “Toritos” (Banana Peppers filled with these delicacies), a fresh crab meat “tostada”, a savory seafood “machaca” (made with finely minced squid, shrimp and scallops) and an extravagant fish fillet covered with a hot cactus, onion and pepper topping... I surely hope that Elisabeth will have additional reasons to return next year to Guaymas.

Technorati Tags: Elisabeth Strack,Sonoran Cuisine,Cortez Pearl Farm,Guaymas

I hope this entry about the 2011 Cortez Pearl harvest was of interest to you. I will eventually write-up this year’s harvest’s full information (quantity of harvested pearls, size of harvested pearls, shapes, colors, qualities, etc.) since we still have 30% of the harvest yet to reap and we are still hopeful, as we are every year, to find the "Pearl of the World .

Until next time...

Speaking of Natural Pearls, Part 1

This is a subject that we wanted to discuss since quite some time ago, but instead I have been discussing various topics in order to be able to capture the attention of as many readers as possible, especially since talking and educating about pearls is somewhat complex and requires greater intention. So far, despite the fact that we have already talked about “Pearl culture” and “natural pearls” -such as those once produced by Don Gaston Vivés in Baja California- there are still many people who are confused or who have received incorrect information on the subject. We have found that on Spanish language sites –by the way: this Blog is primarily for Spanish language readers, but I’ve do some effort to have an English version in order to be a bit more “universal” -there is from none to very little information on the subject of natural pearls in Spanish on the web, but in English this is not the case (some very good sites on the subject are: Kari pearls and Love to Know 1911), but you can never have enough information, so here we will try to answer all questions or -at the least– will help you to find new questions (not a bad thing per se).

So let us start this fascinating topic of natural pearls. First, we’ll start with a bit of history, we then will examine certain features of pearls and finally talk about how the natural pearls are formed and we do hope we can help to do away with the incredibly popular myth of “pearls are formed with a grain of sand”… I’ll try my best.

History of the discovery of the Pearl

Who discovered the first pearls? When did people begin to show an appreciation for pearls? What are we having for Lunch today? These are probably the questions that many have pondered upon for ages and for which we do not have a fulfilling answer, but let us “travel back in time” to about 10 thousand years ago (and even before that), when human groups in coastal areas or even in areas with rivers began to swim in search of food (notice the importance of question #3?) and under the philosophy of “everything that can be eaten must be eaten” they began to collect pearl oysters and mussels for lunch. Occasionally, they would find a Pearl inside and this could either become a happy moment or a time of huge annoyance… since one hard bite on a pearl can easily cause a dental crack. But let us suppose they did happen to find a “little pearl”: perfect, beautiful like the Moon, or as green as the sea, or able to display rainbow-like flashes or they were able of seeing their face reflected on it… to our ancestors this was Pure Magic. Let’s say that it could have been a good start for the discovery of the Aesthetics.

Now, how did that appreciation and admiration for these small nacreous orbs became an item used as a gem or for personal adornment? Most likely human beings were already using varied “ornaments”: shells, wood, leather, teeth, bones, stones… (it is stated that the oldest pieces of jewelry found are about 100 thousand years old and were made using snail shells, for more information click here) but the Pearl would become the highlight among any other decorative items because it was much more beautiful and would arrive in an “almost ready” state for its use: while almost all other items (corals, gemstones, ivory, etc.) would require many work-hours in order to end up used in an ornament. But the Pearl was a truly a gift of Nature… and had a value-added feature that today is not easily appreciated: its hardness (this topic will be discussed in a future blog delivery).

Adornments similar to those used by our Human Ancestors

Once the Pearl became more and more popular in the taste of our ancestors it also became a “sacred” or “holy” gem, thus many legends and stories about pearls exist and there is not a sacred book that does not include our beloved Gem within its pages, and this also generated many theories about its formation: that its origin it was purely divine, that when angels shed tears these would fall into the sea and became pearls, or that when lightning struck the surface of the ocean pearls would be formed and would fall into the oyster’s gaping mouths (the lightning being produced by the Greek god Zeus), etc., and these ideas eventually evolved up to the this point in civilization  until we  finally arrived to the widely accepted idea that “a grain of sand enters the oyster’s body and irritates the animal unless it coats it up with nacre and thus…becomes Pearl”. How did we ever get this idea? Let us look into this account more closely.

 

The theory of the Grain of Sand

What is interesting about this idea is that most people consider it as a very logical and sound theory, and so it must be true. Let us analyze this “theory”, step by step:

1. Pearl oysters live in the sea, in shallow coastal areas and are found attached on hard substrate (rocks, reefs, shells of mollusks, etc.), and in these areas there is enough sand for the purpose of “stuffing” the pearl oysters.

2. It is logical to imagine that in a day with appropriate environmental conditions (waves, wind, strong currents) some sand will become suspended in the water and could travel –using sea currents- until some grains of sand find their way into an open oyster.

3. At this point, the oyster is starting to feel irritation from the roughness from the grain of sand and -as a consequence- the oyster will have to defend itself from this “painful foreign body” by secreting a smooth and delicate substance –nacre- around the grain of sand in order to form a soft and delicate pearl… easy, isn’t it?

Technorati Tags: natural pearls,pearl fisheries,myths,grain of sand,Cortez Pearls,history

A "Panamic Black Lipped Pearl Oyster" (Pinctada mazatlanica)

But I am sorry to say that this is not the case and I’ll be emphatic and will just say NO NO and NO!!!! That is simply not true nor accurate. And in fact, we have reliable and accurate scientific information about what actually happens to an Oyster in order for it to produce a Natural Pearl… but for some unknown reason –could it have been a marketing scam? –”the grain of sand theory” is the one that won and it ended up established in the collective conscience of humanity. How can we prove this theory as incorrect?  We have two tools: the first would be using logic and the second one by means of experimentation. Let’s do this step by step.

 

Using logic

Natural pearls were almost always scarce. Most sources mention obtaining only ONE (1) natural pearl from every 10 thousand slaughtered oysters. One Pearl for every 10 thousand little animals…. But how much sand do we have available at sea? Why so many grains of sand reaching so very few pearl oysters? How come we can’t find many more pearls?

In our experience -from what we have seen by working for over 20 years here in Bacochibampo Bay-  is that water conditions can be severely affected by a change in tides, a swell or due to tropical storms, or even due to strong Northwest winds, and the change can be so severe that sea-water conditions can change from its normal blue-green color to a “caffé latté” (brown) color due to the immense amount of suspended -containing large quantities of sand and mud- sediments. At times like these, the amount of pearls which should be formed definitively has to be huge, simply because of the potential “sand-grains” in the waters. Now, this kind of phenomenon is not uncommon: it happens very often in our location, especially during winter months. That means that any Pearl Oyster in the Bay might receive from just several thousand to millions of grains of sand per week; and keep in mind that if an Oyster can live about between 6 to 16 potential years…this rises to the amount to that of billions of grains of sand = billions of pearls PER OYSTER.

Thus each pearl oyster should be the equivalent of a treasure chest: it is simply a question of diving for one Pearl Oyster in order to obtain sufficient pearls for several necklaces, bracelets, earrings and gift-sets for the whole family and –why not?- even for the pesky neighbors!!! …but, again, this is not the case: only one of every 10 thousand oysters produces a quality Pearl.

If the cause is not sand… then, what causes a natural pearl to form? I will talk about this in my next blog delivery…