A funny thing happened not too long ago. I asked myself a question I was surprised I didn’t know the answer to because I felt I should have. It all started whilst enjoying one of my favorite pastimes – Asian cinema, particularly movies from India. I was enjoying an epic and as with all period epics in Indian film, there is the scene of the elaborately adorned Raja or Rani resplendent in gold, stones, and lots of pearls. Although cinematic aesthetic is sometimes exaggerated from fact, in the case of the historic rulers of India, cinematic opulence doesn’t stray too far from the truth. When you look at paintings and photographs, their elaborate and rich apparel was a sight to see. With strands of pearls adorning headdresses, hair, necks, and apparel one cannot help but wonder how many mollusks were harvested to find all those pearls. Be they fresh or salt water, natural pearls are a rarity. Yet we have seen throughout history across different civilizations humanity’s penchant for pearls. The collection of so many pearls lead me to ask — Were there so many mollusks available which made the probability of finding a natural pearl not as rare as we thought? Or was there a version of cultured pearls in the past that increased the likelihood of pearl production—a precursor to modern pearl cultivation?
You may ask why I should know this. Well, incidentally I worked for a manufacturer of pearl jewelry many years ago. I would harvest cultured pearls from farmed oysters and prep them to be set in jewelry. I learned about the different oyster species, grading, and the modern cultivation process. I would spend hours looking at pearls and the nacre of the oysters, an experience that gave me a fascination with the gem and the animal that produces it. Maybe I had wondered this before, but like everyone else I let that thought pass me by. But this time I didn’t, and what I learned only augmented my fascination with mollusks.
For millennia we humans have been captivated and enthralled with the pearly gems and the nacre of shells also known as the mother of pearl. Pearls have always been desired, but few could attain them. Fortunes were made and lost in the search for them. Wars waged, and conquests made to control the waters that produced them. Even their existence inspired myths and stories across different civilizations, linking pearls to deities and rituals. A pearl’s existence was often explained by divine intervention and determining how they were made was akin to understanding the divine. It seems any culture that has been exposed to pearls has had some fascination with them and not just for decorative purposes. Elixirs containing mollusks shells have been around since antiquity. Then in the late 19th and early 20th century in Japan, a breakthrough occurred. The Mikimoto Pearl Company, still a name of distinction in the pearl industry, changed everything with a patented method to culture pearls. The new cultured pearls were pearls made by an oyster after human manipulation induced pearl production. Their staple was and still is the Akoya pearls of the Pinctada fucata oyster. This method pioneered in Japan gave pearl manufacturers a reliable method for guaranteed pearls. Eventually, the method was implemented on other pearl-producing species of oysters, mussels, and clams. Once these cultured pearls entered the market in the early 20th century pearls became accessible to larger populations and people could finally attain the status symbol that pearls gave.
Historically pearls have been deemed rare and as such were desired and valuable. Only a select few could attain them. In some cases, it was mandated by law that only certain class members could wear them. This ensured a pearls’ place as a gem worthy only of the few and powerful. And when pearls were adorned, it was extravagantly done. Strands upon strands of pearls, with hundreds sometimes thousands adorning one body. So, was there another form of pearl cultivation prior to the 20th century? Or did massive oyster reefs unlike what we can imagine today exist to provide all these pearls naturally?
Writings dating to antiquity showed people’s constant curiosity to understand pearl production. What was known was that there wasn’t a pearl in every oyster, mussel, or clam. The long sought-after perfect pearl was indeed rare. There are writings as far back as the 11th and 12th centuries in China that explain the inducement of blisters also known as mabé pearls. These are pearls attached to the mother of pearl. So, it seems China had been successful in manipulating mussels to some extent. But they weren’t the round beads people craved. They were usually molds that would manipulate the shape of the interior shell creating a certain image or shape on the mother of pearl. Most commonly it was an image of the Buddha used for charms and accessories. The method from China made its way to Europe via the silk road by the Renaissance. However, it didn’t significantly change the pearl industry. Probably because Europeans were obsessed with the round and symmetrical teardrop-shaped pearls. China’s medieval mabé pearls aside, I found no other evidence that cultivation was previously successful though failed attempts had been recorded.
I found my answer, but I kept searching because something was niggling at me. My quest to know pulled me in deeper much like the lure of a pearl’s luster. I went into research mode scouring journals on anthropology, history, zoology, marine biology, gemology, and still found no other evidence that cultured pearls existed. Then I realized what was the drive to find evidence of cultured pearls in antiquity. To support the thousands if not millions of natural pearls that have been made into ornaments and jewelry, the number of mollusks harvested is unfathomable to me. The probability of an oyster producing a pearl in its lifetime is estimated at 1 in 1000. Some estimate the probability as less than that. Just start to do the math then, of how many mollusks had to be harvested to attain natural pearls. Even more, how massive were the oyster reefs or beds they were harvested from?
The most telling accounts of pearl farming as it was called, were writings from explorers that would venture to these special lands that had pearls. In Europe as well as across Asia, the most prized pearls came from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mannar. It is no wonder Middle Eastern and Indian cultures in antiquity were so pearl-centric. In these surviving accounts, they describe the process observed to attain pearls. And throughout the centuries the accounts were similar, meaning we have used the same method since antiquity. There was usually a season to collect oysters based on when the seas were the calmest. Boats with divers would go out. These divers would have a stone attached to them to weigh them down to the oyster beds. They would have a sack hanging from their neck or waist and their job was to fill the sack with as many oysters as one breath would allow. They were then pulled up, the oysters dumped, and the process repeated countless times a day. The number of boats and divers varied from 300 small boats during antiquity to large fleets north of 4000 boats at its zenith of commercialization in the 19th century. Once Europeans had begun the age of exploration military might yielded control of these waters to them. And if might did not win the day then treaties giving local sovereigns a cut of the profits did. It was during this time that detailed counts of oyster collection were kept. Even in the early 20th century when the oyster population had already dwindled there were still collecting millions of oysters. In 1905, in the Gulf Mannar, a record was set from previous decades in which a reported 81 million oysters were collected for the season—just to find pearls. By common standards, 5 pearls per 1000 oysters were considered a great harvest. That is a success rate of half a percent. Going by those standards, a best-case scenario might have yielded a collection of up to four hundred thousand pearls. And that’s not a guarantee they were all desired or rated as jewelry worthy.
There were accounts of checking oyster beds before harvesting them, and in some cases not collecting in some areas to allow the reefs to grow again. But as noble as that sounds it was always done from the perspective of maximizing profits, not for fair practices. It is no wonder that pearl cultivation in the 20th century was such a windfall. Even at its lowest success rate—usually related to freshwater mollusks— 10% would survive the grafting process. The grafting process is the modern method used to induce pearl production. In some species of mollusks—usually the larger saltwater oysters— the success rate can be as high as 70%. Modern oyster farms have increased oyster populations in the oceans, but they are not serving their natural purpose anymore. The sad reality is that we in our search for these gems have depleted oyster reefs. Scientists have calculated we have destroyed as much as 85% of these reefs. Of those that remain, about a third are essentially extinct reefs. In other words, these reefs no longer serve their natural purpose or are beyond the point of recovery. Oyster reefs like coral reefs are important environments that support a complex marine food web. A large portion of the seafood we consume depends on these reefs for their own sustenance and survival. These reefs also serve as coastline protection from erosion and storm surges. For an animal that has been very consequential in human civilization, we have little regard for it except for its exploitation in the most superfluous and wasteful way.
As I finally accepted the fact that yes, all those pearls were natural I thought about how we even got here. How did we first begin our obsession with the gems of these creatures? There is a saying that it was a bold man that first ate an oyster. But more likely it was about ingenuity and resourcefulness than anything else. Long before civilizations began our ancestors discovered the great qualities of mollusks. Our earliest ancestors first used oysters as an easy source of protein. Anthropological findings have shown that our primitive ancestors were eating oysters and other shellfish as far back as 200 000 years ago in the southern African continent. It was one of the last foods added to our diets before we made the leap to domesticating animals and crops. Instead of spending the energy and risk of hunting inland, these ancestors harvested oysters during low tides. The nutritionally dense morsels, rich in minerals and amino acids have been linked to aiding the survival and advancement of human development as a species. Logically better diet and nutrition lead to longer and healthier lives. That would increase the survival rate of any species because they have more opportunities to procreate. These ancient humans that ate oysters also showed the earliest signs of cultural norms, the use of tools, and the beginnings of art and symbols in caves. This is the anthropological demarcation between modern humans and primitive ancestors. Somewhere along the way, we lost that knowledge. We stopped seeing the usefulness of the oyster and other mollusks for survival, and instead only saw them as ornaments.
Like most, I too saw them as ornaments. Though my opinion about pearl jewelry since my days working in the industry has changed and is now complex, I still admire what beauty mollusks can create. It was interesting to find in my research how much of our history has been influenced by these animals. It served as an important nutritional boost when we as a species needed it. Its allure drove us to collect them across the world, creating an industry that has spanned the history of all human civilization. Our search for pearls drove further exploration wherever we found them. It led to interactions with new civilizations, it served as a catalyst for war and treaties. It inspired our imagination to explain their existence. That’s a lot for a little animal to do.
Sense of Wonder 