Report visit Jewelmer, Philippines
JEWELMER - Pearlfarm 3 at BusuangaThe company Jewelmer in the Philippines was so kind to give me the opportunity to visit one
of their farms.
Jewelmer has seven pearlfarms, of which are four in the Palawan Province. One of these is located on Busuanga Island. In addition, there is one farm for breeding young oysters. Besides the pearlfarming they have also 10 pearl jewelleryshops in the Philippines.
Their headoffice is in Manila. Altogether there are about 700 people working in the company.
At the pearlfarms everything is subservient to the welfare of the oysters. 'Tender loving care for the oysters' is the slogan for everybody concerned with the pearlfarming. To achieve that attention it means that the workers have to be kept happy too. As they told me: a good cook is of crucial importance on a farm!
Fig.1: Busuanga
Busuanga is really beautiful, not the so called Bounty island with white beaches and palmtrees, but more with mangrove and foliage trees. To get there it takes about an one hour flight with a two-propeller plane from Manila. On the island there are no paved roads and travelling in the open jeepbuses is a dusty affair (you better remove your contactlenses).
After reaching the main town Coron a jeep brings my hostess Myla and me to the northern tip of the island; it is also the end of the road. From there a motorboat takes us to a tiny green island in fifteen minutes, from afar you can see the farm. On the water rows of bouys can be seen as far as you can look, fig.1.
The farm consist of several wooden houses on the beach, sleeping quarters for the workers, the kitchen and so forth, fig.2. At the end of a concrete pier is the landing for the boats. There are two buildings, the laboratory with workshop and the office. Opposite is a watchtower, fig. 3. Close to the beach is on one side of the pier there is a fantastic small restaurant for the guests and staff. It is made completely of bamboo and open to all sides. At the other side of the pier is the building with the rooms for the guests and staff. It is also made of bamboo, the walls are of woven leaves and the floor of strips of bamboo which bends when you walk on it, and through which you can see the sea below, fig.4. A special, but very nice experience to stay there!
Fig.2: Pearl farm
at Busuanga
Fig.3: Jetty watchtower
Fig.4: Guest house
As it is nearly impossible to find large quantities of young wild oysters, most of the pearlfarms in the world are now using oysters from the hatching farms for their production.
This has the advantage that you know what you get. Only a small amount of wild oysters (about 1%) are sometimes used for research or breeding purposeses. In any case, environmental laws often forbid fishing for certain oysters.
Fig.5: Platform for
oyster cleaning
Jewelmer uses on its farms only young oysters (Pinctada maxima, gold and white lipped) from their own hatching farm. There the spat grows to about 1,5 cm in two months. Then on the farm they are placed in fine nets which are again placed in a basket to protect them against their enemies/predators and put in the sea. After one month the young oysters are taken out of the water - they are then 3 to 6 cm in diameter. They are very carefully cleaned by hand, checked for diseases or parasites and usability. Then they are placed in racks covered with netting and put back in the sea at a depth of 3 to 5 meter. Every 15 days the racks are checked by divers and if necessary lifted for cleaning, fig.5.
When the oysters are 18 months old, sometimes older, they are operated upon. The diameter of the nucleus depends on the size of the oyster, their conditioning and the opinion of the technician, but is normally 6 to 7 mm. A month later the oysters are taken ashore again, cleaned and checked for diseases and parasites, fig. 6, 7, 8. With X-rays each oyster is examined to see if the nucleus is not rejected or has moved to the wrong place. About 20 to 30 % is rejected at this stage.
Fig.6: Taking the
oysters ashore
Fig.7: Removing
the oysters
Fig.8: Cleaning
the oysters
Fig.9: Cleaning
the oysters
Because the administration of the oysters is very precise, it is traceable for each technician if he has a low or high percentage of rejections. Through research it can be determined if there is another cause for the rejection of the nucleus. 'Keshi's' are also detected and these oysters are separated as they have a high value too.
All oysters with a nucleus in the right place are placed in racks (6 oysters per rack) and put back into the sea fig.9. The rejected oysters are given a month rest and then are operated opon again.
Fig.10: Racks at sea
The approved oyster are set out for 24 months, hanging on 3-meter lines. These are fastened to long lines suspended from anchored bouys. In this way the oysters are on a depth of 12 to 15 meter. The distance between the racks is about 5 m. and between the long lines about 50 m, fig.10.
At some places baskets are used instead of racks. The all important question is: can the oyster get more food in a vertical (rack) or horizontal (basket) position?
It is very important that the oysters are on a right distance from each other. Although the Philippine waters are very rich in nutrients, if the oysters are too close there might be a lack of food on certain moments. This will result in a lower resistance to illnesses and parasites and certainly to a lower quality pearl. As is known from the Japanese akoya's overpopulation may kill a whole farm.
Divers check the oysters'condition frequently. Dead ones are removed and others cleaned if necessary . Because of the nutritious water seaweed and algea stick on the oysters and the netting of the racks. When there is too much seaweed and algea the oysters and racks are cleaned at sea. Specially designed boats have a Japanese cleaning machine on board which cleans the racks with the oysters in one go, using moving high-pressure waterbeams. The racks are taken from the water without unfastening, put through the machine and then go straight back into the sea. In this way up to 30.000 oysters can be cleaned in one day by only three man, and with the minimum of stress to the oysters.
It is very important to understand that oysters are very sensitive creatures. It means that they need to be handeld with great care. Therefore it is important that everybody involved is constantly aware of this and doing his work with pleasure and good intentions. If the workers are happy with their payments, food, lodging and recreation, then they will work with the 'tender loving care' which the oysters need. After a happy, tranquil life the oyster might produce a good pearl.
Depending on the circumstances, such as foodsupply, water quality etcetera, the pearls are harvested after two years. Some oyster are put aside and left in the water for a longer period with the aimof producing a larger pearl. The size of the harvested pearls ranges from 9 to 14 mm.
After the pearls have been harvested, the oyster may be used again. When the pearl is removed, a new nucleus with the same or slightly larger diameter is inserted. This second harvest produces a larger pearl, but it is not always of a good quality.
The meat of the killed oysters is recycled, it is fed to the fishes. It could be used, but untill now no usable method has been found to deep freeze the meat and to transport it in that condition. The shells are used to make nucleï, or are sold to workshops that use it for all kind of handicrafts.
The management of a pearlfarm is a very delicate undertaking. Every location has its own ins and outs, meaning that only after years of experience at the same location, the manager of the farm can deal with the local problems. To transfer a succesful manager to another farm only 150 km away will not guarantee succes either. Small differences in the environment of the new location have to be experienced first to be able to deal with problems specific to that location.
Because nucleï are used from the same oyster as the one who produces the pearl this may create a problem in the gem laboratories when x-ray photos are taken. If the nucleus' nacre layers are perpendicular to the direction of the x-rays, the nucleus might not be clearly visible in the photo. It will look then if the pearl is a natural one and not a cultivated one. In akoya's, nucleï from freswatershell are used. These have a higher Mn grade than the saltwatershells and causes therefore a better contrast on x-ray photos. On some farms in Thailand and the Philippines however, nucleï from the pinctada maxima are used.
Because of the increasing production of pearls worldwide, the demand for (freshwater) nucleï has risen and so has the price. By using the shell of the maxima the price for the nucleï is lower, but the diameter of the nucleï can not be larger than 12 mm. Above that size nucleï of the Mississippi pigtoe have to be used. The quality of the maxima is much better (no brown layers of conchine) and most of all : it is exactly the same material as what the oyster itself produces.
There are now about 36 pearl farms in the Philippines, most of them in the Palawan area, others on Zamboanga, around Cebu and Bohol. The total production of pearls is estimated at about 450 to 500 kan (1700 to 1875 kg.). Jewelmer is the largest producer.
The Philippines and Indonesia are the main producers of golden coloured pearls. Many dealers believe that Japan and Australia also produces golden clours, but it will be very few pearls. Only 30 % of the Philippine production is golden coloured, and of this amount less than 10% has a deep golden colour.
On the Philippines a lot of research is done on pearl cultivation. All kinds of breeding programs are being run and this means a lot of cross-breedingtakes place. Personally I think that by now there are many subvarieties of the pinctada maxima gold- or whitelipped oyster.
Rumors are that through biotechniques and perhaps genetic manipulation other varieties have been developed. As every company in pearlcultivation keeps its techniques secret, it is difficult to find out what exactly is going on.
After visiting pearlfarms in Thailand and the Philippines, one thing became very clear to me: pearl cultivation is requiring very large capital assets, is very labour-intensive, entails high risks and only brings profits if you are lucky. It is true what the producers say: you must really love pearls to be crazy enough to become a pearlfarmer! All the effort going into the production of one good pearl is enormous, and it is my impression that most people in the jewelry trade have absolutely no idea. They can only complain that the pearl is not round, or has some spots, or is not the right colour. We should be glad that there are people who are taking the risks to produce one of the most beautiful gems.