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 Australian Pearl Farming
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In search of larger South Sea oysters, the Japanese established the first cultured pearl farm in Australia's Kimberly region. This area is home to the Pinctada Maxima, the world's largest oyster, producer of the biggest and most expensive pearls. The oyster can live up to 20 years and grow to be the size of a dinner plate.
The Pinctada Maxima formed the basis for Australia's pearl shell industry, supplying the world with 75 percent of the shell used for buttons, inlay, knife handles, gun handles; all things mother of pearl..
The area's environment was ideal for sustaining a large, healthy population of pearl oysters. These shell beds are swept by an exceptionally high tidal flow, providing the oysters an abundant supply of food from a very clean Indian Ocean.
Nick Paspaley runs a modern pearl culturing operation in Australia. The business was started by his father who harvested oysters for their shell because gem quality pearls were rare.
In 1958, he established a farm with Japanese and American partners, and became one of the first Australians to move into pearl culturing.
Japanese technicians were employed to make use of their proven, but still secret culturing techniques. The Japanese also brought their oyster farming methods.
However the Japanese system of farming did not work in Australian waters and 60 percent of the oysters died.
The Japanese shell is much hardier than the Australian shell and will live under much higher concentrations. Australian shell requires more plankton, and its stress levels are much lower than the Japanese shell.
To solve this problem, oysters were winched onboard and put through cleaning machines every few weeks. The oysters' health did improve. But other problems remained. The harbor water was becoming less pristine and overcrowding was a growing concern.
But it took 10 years of experimentation led to find a simple, but expensive, solution: taking the entire pearl culturing operation out to sea. |
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