Report on cultivation of Melo melo pearls in Thailand, September 2001
At the start of 2001 there was an article in a gem-magazine about a man who claimed he could cultivate Melo melo pearls. As I am very interested in Melo melo pearls I wanted to meet this man. With the help of some colleagues I was able to contact him.Last September I met mr. Suraphol Chunhabundit, marine biologist at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. A very nice and modest scientist.
The Melo melo pearl is formed by a snail housing in a conch shell. Till now it is considered impossible to cultivate conch pearls as the snails can not be inserted with a nucleus. At a few places there is now cultivation of Abalone half-pearls, how far the research is for making full pearls is not know.
It means that conch pearls are found by accident, are rare, are sought after by collectors and therefore good qualities can fetch high prices (US$ 10.000 to 50.000). Melo melo pearls are found at the coast of Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. The Vietnamese pearls are most known. In Thailand the Melo melo is is sometimes found by fisherman while fishing for crabs, the meat is sold as delicacy.
Mr. Suraphol started his research at the Sichang Marine Science Research and Training Station in the Chonburi Province at the Gulf of Thailand. There he made a few concrete tanks in which the natural habitat was imitated.
As is written and believed the melo melo gastropod moves over the seabottom and catches small sea-animals like fish, shrimps, etcetera. According to mr. Suraphol this is not right. The animal is nocturnal and digs itself into the sandy bottom leaving only a siphon above the sand.
That is the reason why it is very hard to find it and is rarely catched. It lives on plankton and other very small animals.
The idea is to make use of the socalled 'reefballs' , welknown in the scubadiving and environmental organisations, to confine the snails. Reefballs are domes of concrete with large holes which are used to start the building of arteficial reefs. The snail is put under the domes and in its natural habitat, but can not be fished up or move away. Although no reef will have a chance to build, a area full with reefballs will attract a lot of sealife which is good for the environment. That might be attractive again for scuba divers and that will be beneficial for the people living on the coast. Diving business is a fast growing, profitable sector of tourism. And in many cases protective for the enviroment.
Beneficial for both the people and the conservation of the environment is exactly what mr. Suraphol has in his mind. Recently he was granted enough money to continue his research. He has produced several pearls already.
(2006 - The grant was later withdrawn and the research had to stop.)
The key to his success and the thing everybody want to know is of course : How is he implanting a nucleus? I know he has been using Pigtoe nucleï and he wants to use in future the Bironite tm. nucleï. But mr. Suraphol is so kind to keep that information to himself, and that is exactly what he should do till his research is finished. If he succeeds then the pearlbusiness will take to a new chapter: the cultivation of conch pearls! We will loose again a part of the mystic and romance of the rare, natural pearls, but on the other hand : more people will enjoy it and live from it.