Pearl Culture and Pearl Oyster Cultivation

Abstract

Few marine animals have yet been tamed and harnessed for man's use. Of these the bivalves have the greatest potential, and of the bivalves the pearl oysters are perhaps the most thoroughly exploited. Not only are they eaten and their shell put to use, but their nacre-secreting properties are tapped to produce pearls by design, rather ·than by accident as in nature. A pearl oyster grows to marketable size in about five years. Half pearl and Spherical Pearl operations can be started in the third year while the oyster is still young. Half Pearls take little more than a year to become harvestable, Spherical Pearls about 3 years. Consequently a pearl farm could be well established in five years and yielding considerable profits in ten years. What is required is a little capital, a little science, a little luck, and a lot of common sense animal husbandry.