Black Pearl - Pearl Farming

French Polynesia’s cultured pearlindustry originated in 1963 when a farm was started on Hikueru atoll in the Tuamotu islands east of Tahiti. The pearl industry is now second to tourism in earnings. The real expansion in farming started in late 1980s. Today thousands of

people are employed in operating cooperatives and private farms on 26 atolls.

Pearl farming relieves pressure on natural stocks and creates an incentive to protect marine environments. Various forms of pollution from fertilizers to sewage can make a lagoon unsuitable for pearl farming, for this reason farms are on lightly populated atolls where other farming is not practiced.

Different from the Japanese cultured white pearl, the Polynesian black pearl is created only by the giant blacklipped oyster, Pinctada margaritifera, which thrives in the Tuamoto lagoons.