8/28/2023 0 Comments Where to farm golden pearls![]() The pearl story was on the brink of ending and was saved by timely intervention via courageous investment in biotechnology and oyster hatcheries. ![]() However, weather vagaries were taking its toll and oyster beds started to deplete. Initial farming was done the traditional way: Divers went to the oyster beds and collected mature oysters experts seeded them and returned them in mesh panels to the ocean to grow pearls. The government, too, saw this potential and embraced the pearls of Palawan as the national gem of the Philippines, supporting a campaign to promote the “ultimate orient” worldwide. The Frenchman is Jacques Branellec, his business partner is Manuel Cojuangco, and Jewelmer is their thriving business. Together with a Filipino entrepreneur, they set up what would become the world’s most successful golden pearl production enterprise. Then World War II broke out sweeping his valiant efforts away, but the oysters remained, silently flourishing beneath the waters.įast-forward to the 1970s: A young French adventurer, head full of pioneering pearl stories, arrives in the South Seas and re-discovers these oyster beds and the pearl potential of the seas around Palawan. These were large, lustrous, and three to four times the size of Akoya pearls produced at the time. Undaunted, he moved south to Buton, Indonesia where he successfully produced the world’s first South Sea pearls. He set up camp in 1916 in Zamboanga, east of Palawan, and started pearl cultivation, but unforeseen security threats pushed him out. These large oysters of the South Seas beckoned him. ![]() Dr Fujita, the scientific mastermind behind Japan’s flourishing Akoya pearl industry pioneered by fellow countryman Kokichi Mikimoto, was fired by a passion and mission to grow larger lustrous orbs. These mysterious creatures were revealed by Japanese explorer and marine scientist, Dr Sukeo Fujita during his early 20th century adventures in the South Seas. Oysters flourish coccooned in mesh panels Among the mollusks flourishing here is the bivalve Pinctada maxima, with its iridescent golden-lipped mother of pearl shell and an inherent ability to produce golden pearls. Hidden beneath the pristine waters that lap her shores is a magical concentration of marine biodiversity. This is Palawan, one of the 7,000 plus islands of the Philippines. Intrepid travelers describe her as the most stunningly beautiful island in the world, a finger of paradise, fringed by wide beaches, forest-covered craggy cliffs, and high-altitude thermal lakes.
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