Saltwater, Freshwater, and South Sea: Oh My!
As with any area of specialization, the lexicon used in the pearl industry can be confusing to the uninformed.Terry Shepherd, a.k.a. "The Pearl Hunter," who scours the world in search of the perfect pearl, likes to help his customers at The Pearl Outlet navigate those confusing pearl-rich waters. The Pearl Outlet customer is a well-informed buyer, thanks to the Pearl Hunter.Although you could immerse yourself in a long study of the world of pearls, The Pearl Hunter has done most of the work for you. According to Terry, here are the main points to remember if you're in the market for pearls:1. The terms "Akoya" and "Saltwater" are generally used interchangably. Most of the pearls found at The Pearl Outlet are Akoya pearls. Akoya pearls represent approximately 90% of the pearls available commercially today.2. Freshwater pearls are usually grown in inland China. Less than 1% of all freshwater pearls harvested produce large, round pearls--in other words, pearls that might meet the quality standards of The Pearl Outlet. However, freshwater pearls are plentiful (about ten times more plentiful than saltwater pearls), so the sheer number represented by this 1% is still quite large.3. Freshwater pearls are completely nacre, and are nucleated with a tissue nucleus as opposed to a bead nucleus used for saltwater pearls. [NOTE: For insight into why and how oysters are nucleated, see "The Pearl Hunter Returns" post of June 6, 2006]. Freshwater mussels, which are much larger than oysters, are used to grow pearls. Due to their large size, multiple pearls--sometimes in excess of TWENTY--can be grown in each mussel. However, most freshwater pearls don't have the lustre and roundness of Akoya pearls. The price of freshwater pearls is significantly lower, thanks to their ease in growing and harvest. The quality of the very top end of freshwater pearls is exceptional, and can have a much longer lifetime than Akoya pearls.4. The legendary Tahitian pearls (grown in French Polynesia) are usually black, but can range significantly in color. Because of the many overtones available in Tahitian pearls, it's often difficult to make a strand that is perfectly matched. Tahitian pearls are saltwater pearls, grown on atolls, protected from the ocean elements, and suspended on floats. They have a very thick nacre, usually are quite large, and are typcially the second most expensive pearls, taking a backseat to...5. ...South Sea pearls. Produced in the largest type of commercial oyster used for pearl production, South Sea pearls are mostly white, but are sometimes available in golden and "buttery" tones. These are the most expensive types of pearls, and are found off the coast of Australia, Indonesia, and the Phillipines.Find more information on how to choose the perfect pearl for your needs at The Pearl Outlet.
The Pearl Hunter Returns
Nothing feels sweeter than returning home after a long trip. And that holds especially true for Terry Shepherd, a.k.a. “The Pearl Hunter,” who is recently back to the United States after one of his grueling—and legendary—trips to the Orient in search of the world’s finest pearls.The Pearl Hunter’s exploits in his hunt for the ultimate jewel are legendary, so we corralled Terry and begged him to share some tales of his adventure abroad. It’s not easy—cracking him open can be as difficult as prying open one of the oysters that hold the reward of his quest. But once he starts “talkin’ pearls,” The Pearl Hunter gets a gleam in his eye that reflects the lustre of the jewels upon which he’s built his reputation.Intrigue, strange cuisine, and unfamiliar territory are all obstacles that The Pearl Hunter must overcome on his quest for the world’s perfect pearl. Long stretches of dirt roads are common, as are harrowing rides in boats that might barely be deemed seaworthy in the Western Hemisphere. But they are all prices that Terry is willing to pay to bring the ultimate value and quality to his customers.A picture is often worth a thousand words, so we’ll let some of the photos from The Pearl Hunter’s pearl safari do the talking. Some of the shots demonstrate what life is like for the Chinese Akoya pearl farmers, and others demonstrate some of the challenges inherent in Terry’s quest.Think that a taxi is a large yellow car? Think again. Here’s a taxicab, Chinese-style.
Here’s a shot of a remote road that The Pearl Hunter had to navigate for nearly two hours in order to reach the pearl farms. You might notice the cacti lining the road, but what you can’t see is the intense heat that The Pearl Hunter had to endure.
Sailing, sailing, over the seven seas: Terry’s water transportation is constructed of roughly-hewn lumber that is bolted together, and propelled by a belt-driven engine that has just enough power to make the trip to the pearl farm painfully slow.
With his shack in the background, here’s a shot of a pearl farmer tending to his valuable stock of oysters. Look carefully between the farmer’s legs and you’ll see a small trowel that he’s using to scrape off barnacles and other debris that can negatively affect the health of the pearl. Each floating raft/shack combo (which measures approximately 20 feet by 20 feet) typically holds two people...one to tend to the oysters while another keeps a watchful eye on things.
The Pearl Hunter likes to get up close and personal with his quarry. Here, Terry carefully inspects nets full of oysters that will produce high-quality Akoya pearls.
In order to start the pearl growing process, a mother-of-pearl bead must be inserted (very, very carefully) inside the gonad of the oyster. First, the gonad is cut, then the bead and a small piece of mantle tissue is inserted. As further display of his commitment to pearl quality, The Pearl Hunter himself is shown “getting his hands dirty” and planting the bead and mantle inside a few oysters. The bead is chosen based on the size of the oyster—a larger bead produces a larger pearl. Interestingly, the beads are harvested from the shell of a mollusk that grows in the Mississippi River of the United States. These mollusks have shells that are thick enough to produce a good bead.
And the mantle tissue? That’s taken from the inside layer of an Akoya oyster. Here’s an example of one such shell...note the lustre of the shell surface itself. The mantle is cut into extremely tiny pieces that measure approximately one millimeter square. The second photo below shows a line of this mantle tissue on a piece of glass. That thin white strip of mantle tissue will produce 50 or more pieces of tissue used to nucleate an oyster.
Once the oyster is nucleated, it must be pampered by hanging just inches below the water’s surface, where the warmer water temps treat the new pearl gently. They stay in this warm water for about 6 weeks before they are lowered 3.5 meters below the surface to the colder water. The Pearl Hunter is shown here with newly nucleated oysters.
The floating pearl farms are located in fairly close proximity to one another. Here’s a shot of one of the nicer farms that is located further out in the bay where the water is at its cleanest. Note the lines of rope attached to the floating buoys. The nets holding the oysters hang from these ropes.
After a long day of examining various pearl farms, what’s an internationally-known pearl hunter to do but consider what he’s going to have on his dinner plate? Here are some of the appetizing choices in a local restaurant. I wonder if these entrees come with a side of fries.
Pearls Added to Celebrity Cafe's Mother's Day Gift Guide
Thanks, Mom! Pearls for a Mother's Day Gift
Uh oh. What do you mean that THIS SUNDAY is Mother’s Day?!?!Yes, that’s right, pal. It’s late in the week and you still haven’t removed your rear from the chair long enough to acknowledge the most important woman in your life, your mom, and everything that she’s done for you over the years. She’s been your mentor, your caregiver, maybe even your inspiration. A shoulder to cry on. A confidante. Tough love when it was needed. The list goes on and on...Well, lucky for you, your stress about finding the “perfect” Mother’s Day gift is over, thanks to The Pearl Outlet. Just in time, The Pearl Outlet has refined their selection of stunning freshwater pearl necklaces, available in every quality, length, and color to suit your mom’s unique sense of taste and style.A lot of The Pearl Outlet’s customers start by looking at the necklace designed for the most budge-oriented consumer, but once they look at the full lineup of freshwater pearl necklaces, they quickly realize that a higher quality necklace is more suitable for their mom.Especially hot this spring has been the gorgeous Lavender Pearl Necklace, available in lengths from 18 to 20 inches and pearl sizes up to 10mm, which are strung on twin silk thread that is hand knotted between each pearl for beauty and durability. For the woman who likes to make a bold statement with her jewelry, The Pearl Outlet often suggests the complete Black Freshwater Pearl Set, which includes AA+ quality black pearls in a 17" necklace, 7 1/2" bracelet, and stud earrings and makes an excellent choice for semi-formal or formal occasions.Fashions change over time and trends come and go as fast as the next advertising campaign. But some things thankfully stay the same: The quality of fine jewelry and the love a mother has for her children. Let The Pearl Outlet help you show your appreciation for YOUR mom with something as timeless as a quality pearl necklace.Your mom will love you for it.And don’t stress about getting the gift to mom by the big day. The Pearl Outlet has numerous shipping options to consider.
My Pearl Necklace...Is It Real, Or Is It Fake?
On this April Fool's Eve (one of our favorite holidays!), we thought it appropriate to discuss a phenomenon that is unfortunately all too common these days with online merchants: Counterfeits and fakes.
The pearl industry isn't immune to the problem...a quick search of any online auction site reveals a slew of pearls and other jewelry whose prices are just...well, too good to be true.
Terry Shepherd, a.k.a. "The Pearl Hunter" and owner of The Pearl Outlet, has a legitimate reason to be concerned about the proliferation of fake pearls. It's bad for the industry, it's bad for business, and it's really bad for the consumer.
We found a great online treatise about how best to spot a fake pearl here. It discusses a number of different methods you can use to ensure that you're getting the quality of pearls that you think you're getting.
Of course, you can always be assured that you're getting the BEST quality of genuine pearls at The Pearl Outlet. The Pearl Hunter takes exhaustive measures to select the pearls that he sells, resulting in a positive buying experience for you.
The Greening Industry of Pearls
If you're concerned about issues involving pollution, environmental threats, and non-sustainable agricultural practices, you probably don't have much reason to celebrate. With each passing page of the calendar, it seems as if our world becomes a bit more polluted and we're another step closer to an environmental armaggedon.When Terry Shepherd does his hunting, you can be sure that he has a higher environmental ethic than many other hunters. While most sportsmen pursue their game with a blatant disregard for the ground and water on which they travel, most hunters are supremely concerned for the survival of our planet. But the sheer act of hunting has been called into question--how can the taking of a life benefit the earth from an environmentalist and conservationist viewpoint?Shepherd, owner of The Pearl Outlet and affectionately known as "The Pearl Hunter," hunts for a prey that is not only regarded for its monetary and aesthetic value, but also for the benefits that it imparts on communities throughout the world. "The Greening Industry of Pearls" is a reality, not a dream. It's a rare industry that benefits the earth--in other words, gives back more than it takes. When was the last time you knew of another industry segment that did the same?One press release on this subject, issued by Pearls of Joy, can be found HERE.And Neil Anthony Sims has written an insightful piece on this very issue, which we have republished here in its entirety. Thanks for reading.The Green Pearl Issue
by: Neil Anthony Sims
...So, are pearl farms bad, benign, or beneficial? Years ago, we had
suggested to several individuals actively involved in environmental
conservation in the South Pacific that instead of (or as well as) setting
up a National Marine Park, they should set up a pearl farm. Our suggestion
was ignored, or dismissed, I guess. I've not heard of any pearl farms in
any Southeast Asian or Melanesian National Parks, but I still think it's a
stellar idea. The biological benefits are tremendous (all that wonderful
vertical relief for biomass to build up, and for fish recruitment), the
protection afforded coral reefs by a pearl farm's armed guards is
unimpeachable, and there is no other industry that provides such stable,
lucrative employment opportunities for isolated atolls. You have probably
heard all this before, but please allow me to restate the case for the
defence en toto.
The benefits from pearl farming
Pearl farming is an ideal development opportunity for remote communities.
It is a sustainable, lucrative industry, and in many cases it provides
both direct and indirect benefits to the environment. The direct benefits
are from reducing the pressure on stocks depleted by years of pearl shell
fishing, and fostering the recovery of pearl oyster populations. Indirect
benefits are in providing a viable, sustainable industry for rural areas
and isolated atolls, and in encouraging greater stewardship of marine
resources.
Pearl farming is eminently sustainable, from a stock management
perspective. In almost every pearling area in the world today, farming is
based on spat produced in hatcheries, or taken from artificial spat
collectors. The only continuing reliance on fishing of wild stocks for
farms is in northern and western Australia, where the collection of wild
oysters is a tightly regulated, stable fishery.
Pearl farms can help overfished stocks recover by acting as reproductive
nodes - aggregations of large, densely packed, well-tended adult oysters.
The large number of fecund oysters, in close proximity to each other,
results in better synchronisation of spawning, higher fertilisation rates,
and far greater numbers of viable larvae, compared to the conditions of a
depleted population, where oysters may be hundreds of meters, or even
miles, apart. In French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, stocks formerly
suffered from continual boom-and-bust fishing for the oysters, solely for
the value of the pearl shell. However, over the last few decades, since
the advent of large-scale farming in these atolls, spat falls and wild
oyster stocks have both increased dramatically. Black Pearls, Inc. has a
pending application for a pearl farm lease here in Hawaii that is largely
justified by the project being a public-private partnership: a pearl farm
and stock re-establishment programme rolled into one. The oysters on the
farm will be the broodstock that replenish the surrounding reefs with
Hawaii's imperilled endemic oyster.
Pearl farming is labour-intensive, and provides employment for both farm
workers and in spin-off secondary support industries. Pearl farming
thereby relieves pressure on other marine resources, such as reef
fisheries, that might otherwise be subject to unsustainable commercial
exploitation.
Pearl farming also encourages island communities towards greater
stewardship over their natural resources, and fosters reassertion of their
traditional tenure regimes. At a pearl farm in Palawan, Philippines, where
we have worked for about five years, the pearl farm areas were the only
ones where there was any reasonable coral reef left. Prior to the farm's
establishment, I was told, dynamite fishing was rampant throughout the
area. To this day, the reefs that lie outside of the range of the farm
guards' spotlights and AK-47s, are completely damaged. The reefs beneath
the pearl farm rafts and longlines are indescribably beautiful.
Pearl oysters are filter feeders, and require no supplementary feeding. In
areas of high water turbidity, the oysters may even improve water quality,
by clearing suspended particulates. The animals are highly susceptible to
any environmental perturbation, which is why farms are often located in
remote areas. Farmers therefore are often strong advocates for marine
environmental protection and management.
Pearl farm developments across the Pacific are supported by a wide range
of environmental and development agencies, including the WorldFish Center
in Malaysia, Sea Grant College programme in the US-affiliated Pacific,
ACIAR (Australian Center for International Agricultural Research), and the
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC-our publisher).
We believe so strongly in the power of the pearl to protect that Black
Pearls, Inc. eagerly compiled a comprehensive EIA for a pearl farm
proposal by the Cook Islands government to develop pearl farming in a
national park in the Cook Islands, in the remote lagoon of Suwarrow. We
believe that there is no incompatibility between the protected park status
and the pearl farm operation; indeed, the farm would have provided some
capability to enforce the national park management plan, and would have
afforded some level of protection for the fragile reef resources. We are
waiting to hear of the next move in this direction by the Cooks
government, or perhaps Suwarrow will be left languishing.
Green tinge to this POIB issue
Environmental consciousness grows apace. Bo Torrey's Pearl World (The
International Pearling Journal) recently focussed an entire issue on the
Pew Oceans Commission report, entitled "What's happening to our oceans".
The subtext of this issue was "So you love pearls? You need to be more
environmentally aware and active, or there may not be any more". Bo is to
be applauded for taking such an activist stance. There is not much in the
Pew report that relates directly to pearling, so rather than reprint large
sections of this issue here in POIB, we suggest that, if you are
interested, you write to Bo and ask him for a copy of that issue (Volume
12, No. 2). By the way, we still shamelessly lift excerpts from several
other Pearl World articles for our POIB, as usual. There is simply no
better source of information on what's moving, shaking, and breaking in
pearling.
The environmental impacts of pearling were recently a hot issue in New
South Wales, Australia, where the government fisheries agency and private
partners were proposing to expand some pilot-scale trials with the local
akoya-relative (Pinctada imbricata) in Port Stephens. This project earned
an initial thumbs-up from the environmental commissioner appointed to
adjudicate the project proposal. It now seems, however, that the opponents
have hounded the project to death.
In an attempt to provide some perspective (or perhaps just because it was
an interesting bit of science), the researchers working on this project
also recently published an article pointing out the powerful
bio-remediative potential of pearl oysters, particularly their ability to
remove heavy metals from polluted waters.
Closer to home, Black Pearls, Inc. has been working for several years on a
US Department of Defense research project to validate the use of P.
margaritifera as a heavy metal monitor. We publish excerpts from the
report of our first stage of this work; a second stage has just been
initiated.
This issue also refers to two articles on pearl oyster genetics, as they
relate to our environment (see "Other publications noted", p. 39). One
article from Mexico suggests that the uncontrolled plunder of the pearl
oyster beds in the last century has had a significant impact on population
structures of P. mazatlanica along the Pacific Coast of the Americas. The
other article assesses the impact of pearl farming on the genetic
variability of wild and cultured oysters in French Polynesian lagoons, and
gives a "green" light.
Two other noteworthy inclusions in this issue: In the Abstracts section
(p. 24), we provide a list of advance abstracts for the pearl sessions at
the upcoming World Aquaculture Society meeting in Honolulu, in March 2004.
Richard Fassler is billing this as the tenth anniversary of "Pearls '94 ".
We hope to see you there.
And in the News and Views section (p. 18), we start off with a wonderful
tirade from a very irate technician, berating your editor about my
"negative remarks about technicians (who) won't reveal operations
techniques, and the so-called exorbitant fees that they charge". This
letter was faxed in anonymously. If the author(s) had identified
themselves, and asked for my response, I might have pointed out that these
comments weren't mine. I write the editorials, and the occasional tirade
of my own (under my own byline), but the rest of the POIB consists of
contributions from other correspondents, or excerpts from other articles
published elsewhere. In this instance, the negative remarks about
technicians were included in an excerpt from a story in the Cook Islands
News. This article was itself paraphrasing Cook Islands pearl farmers'
comments. They said it; someone else wrote it down; we just copied it.
Anyone who knows us knows that we love our seeding technicians.....
The Pearls of Kalama
Here's MORE Pearl Outlet news to share...this article appeared in the November 30, 2005 issue of the Longview (Washington) Daily News (the originial article can be found HERE).The Pearls of Kalama: Entrepreneur gets intimate with Far East to make living onlineBy Courtney SherwoodNov 30, 2005It all started with a $35 strand of pearls.When Terry Shepherd traveled to China for his software design job in 1998, he had no way to know he was about to embark on a million-dollar jewelry venture.He made a side trip to a Beijing jewelry market, where he bought the pearls that would launch his second career.Today, Shepherd, 33, owns The Pearl Outlet, a Kalama-based business that tallied more than $1 million in sales last year, and expects even more in 2005.His first sale was that $35 strand, appraised at $500 back in the United States and auctioned away at a big profit on the Web. He was hooked."I went back and bought a few thousand dollars worth of pearls," Shepherd said. He put them up for auction on the Web. "They sold immediately."Though he still worked full-time for Hewlett Packard, Shepherd started making more frequent trips to Asia. He soon stopped buying pearls in Beijing, preferring to go directly to the rural towns where the jewels are cultivated.Finding his distributors was a sometimes scary process at first, Shepherd said.After three days of travel --- by plane, ferry and car --- he often would find himself alone with his guide, unable to speak the language, the only westerner within hundreds of miles."One time I was traveling down a dirt road for hours. I was getting nervous. All of a sudden the road led into a huge stone city," Shepherd recalled of an early trip to China. "It was like I'd gone back in time 500 years. There was no electricity, and the pearl farm was right there."To maintain relationships with pearl distributors, Shepherd started making a half dozen international trips each year, traveling to Hong Kong, Japan, China and French Polynesia, he said.He became credentialed as an appraiser. Within six months, his wife, Crystal, 34, had become involved in the business, working from the family's home in Idaho, where they lived at the time.In 2000, The Pearl Outlet was officially incorporated, and the Shepherds stopped auctioning their pearls. Instead, they set up a Web site to market the jewelry.Three years ago, HP transferred Shepherd to its Vancouver office. He bought a home near Kalama to be closer to his parents; he's a 1990 graduate of Woodland High School.A year after he moved, Shepherd decided to resign from Hewlett Packard."I thoroughly enjoyed working with computers," Shepherd said. "But I was putting so much time into The Pearl Outlet that I either had to give up the business or leave HP. The scariest thing I ever did was quit a job where I had benefits. "So many computer jobs are being outsourced overseas, and here we're shipping pearls into the U.S. and creating work for people here."Today, The Pearl Outlet employs four full-time employees, contracts with jewelers to design and build orders and hires temp workers over the holidays.The Web site offers saltwater and freshwater pearls in necklaces, earrings and bracelets, with jewelry for men and women.Buyers come from around the country, and 12 percent of orders are placed overseas --- including from some of the countries where Shepherd buys his pearls, he said.This should be another banner year for The Pearl Outlet, which has nearly doubled sales each of the past several years, Shepherd said.Monday was the start of the online holiday shopping season --- the first work day after Thanksgiving, when Web businesses start seeing big sales, as office employees use company computers to place Christmas orders.Hundreds of people logged on to http://www.thepearloutlet.com to buy on "Cyber Monday," Shepherd said, and this is just the beginning."During the month of December, we'll have hundreds of orders a day," he said. "There have been times when we quit working at 2 a.m., then get up at 5 a.m. and start processing orders again."Even as his business grows, Shepherd has his eye on his competitors. After all, one of them is his brother.Jeremy Shepherd runs Pearl Paradise out of Santa Monica, Calif., at http://www.pearlparadise.com.Terry and Jeremy both made trips to China in the late '90s, and each had the same idea."We are both very much entrepreneurs," Terry Shepherd said.Growing up in the 1980s, "We'd pick the apples off the trees and sell them to our neighbors."There's plenty of room for both businesses to grow, Shepherd said.The Pearl Outlet will soon introduce a new collection of lustrous pearls, and Shepherd said he wants to supply pearls to more online retailers and jewelry stores."It's a lot of fun," he said. "When you look at a pearl, you have to love it."
