|
The largest stock of natural pearls probably
resides in India. Ironically, much of India's stock of natural
pearls came originally from Bahrain.
Unlike Bahrain, which has essentially
lost its pearl resource, traditional pearl fishing is still
practiced on a small scale in India.
The art of culturing pearls was invented
in Japan in 1893 by a man named Kokichi Mikimoto. He discovered
that by introducing a tiny bead of mother-of-pearl (the white
substance on the inside of a mussel's shell) into an oyster,
that oyster would began to cover the irritant with nacre (the
secreted substance that makes up a pearl).
Interestingly, one of the first places
to begin farming cultured pearls outside of Japan was near
the Gulf of California in Mexico. Unfortunately, Mexican pearls
disappeared from the international markets when over fishing
of natural pearl oyster banks took its toll and the Mexican
|
