Meeting with Mr. Suchart, pearlfarmer, BKK-Thailand
and visit of Naga Pearl Co on Naga Noi, September 2001.
Fig.1: Bamboo raft
at Naga Noi
Mr. Suchart co-owns a pearlfarm near Phuket, on Naga Noi. Because of lack of funds, among other things, the farm is hardly in operation.
On the island was a lot of activity to prepare everything for the upcoming tourist season.It is the intention to make the farm a tourist attraction.
On my arrival a bamboo raft was alongside the jetty on wich a Japanese technician was working with Thai workers, fig.1. They were binding young oysters of about eight months old in racks to let them mature another 18 months, fig.2. There were about 200 pieces.
Some oysters were kept in round baskets, suspended in the water at a depth of only 1 to 1,5 meter, fig.3
Also they were also cleaning pinctada maxima's. This was done in quite a rough way, with a small hatchet, seaweed and barnacles were chopped off from the shells. A few times the rim of the shell broke ! This is certainly not the way to treat oysters, fig.4.
If an oysters dies within a short time the body is completely eaten away by tiny crabs, probably the same kind that may cause natural pearls. The pearl (or nucleus) falls from the oyster to the seafloor.
On this farm akoyas were also cultivated, a few hundred. The size of the pearls are 7 to 8 mm diameter.
Some time ago the oysters used in this area were the Pteria penguin. They were used for half- pearls and sometimes for full pearls which were bonze colored. Because of a low demand and the accordingly low prices this cultivation stopped. Which is a real pity, the bronze colour is very attractive, I checked that with quite a number of ladies in East and West.
Fig.2: Netting
young oysters
Fig.3: Suspended baskets
Fig.4: Cleaning shell
Mr. Suchart told me that years ago they were only producing only 6 mm akoya's which did not generate enough profit.
Maxima's are expensive to procure, US$ 1to 2 apiece. If you need a few tenthousend ....... .
After harvesting from the Pinctada maxima whitelipped a new slightly bigger nucleus is immediately placed in the pearlsack. Placing a nucleus can be done 3 to 4 times, the second pearl is normally the best one.
The Andaman Sea has very nutricious water, the pearls are growing fast but therefore lack a very fine lustre; nevertheless good qualities are available.
To prevent stress of the oysters during implantation, they are locked in a closed box with nutritient-poor water. They go into hibernation and can be operated upon easily without any stress to the oyster.