Today, natural pearls are extremely rare. Only 1 in about 10,000 wild oysters will yield a pearl and of those, only a small percentage achieve the size, shape and colour desirable to the jewellery industry.
While any oyster — and clams and mussels — can produce pearls, some species of oysters are more likely to produce pearls, while others may be harvested primarily to serve as food.
There is no obvious sign that an oyster has a pearl inside. You have to open the shell to see if there's one inside. However, larger, older oysters are more likely to have pearls.
While true oysters can make pearls, they are typically not gem quality, and pearl oysters tend to live deep in the ocean out of fishing range, according to Food Republic. According to ThoughtCo, pearls are formed when an irritating substance, such as a grain of sand, gets lodged in an oyster's shell and irritates it.
They are “exceptionally rare” — occurring in about one in 5,000 shells — according to the International Gem Society.
What is this? The typical price range for oyster pearls can range anywhere from $20 to $5,000 or more per pearl, based on various factors. Natural pearls will fetch a higher price range, as will those of exceptional quality or ulterior significance.
The Australian South Sea Pearls are the Jewels of the Ocean and are the rarest and most highly prized pearls in the world. They are known as the Queen of Pearls.
Some pearl “farmers” will remove pearls from an oyster without killing them, keeping them alive to endure repeated insertions of foreign materials to continue making pearls. It is estimated that around a third to half of them are kept while the rest are killed.
A rare discovery of 10 pearls inside a single oyster shell has been uncovered at one of Australia's oldest pearl farms, making it potentially a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
Pearls are made by marine oysters and freshwater mussels as a natural defence against an irritant such as a parasite entering their shell or damage to their fragile body. The oyster or mussel slowly secretes layers of aragonite and conchiolin, materials that also make up its shell.
One fascinating discovery about the sex of pearl oysters is its influence on pearl quality. Males produce high-valued pearls compared to females. They also produce pearls with good features such as luster, smoothness and evenness, while the pearls produced by females have scratches and are uneven.
Black Pearl Price Range:
Dyed Black Freshwater Pearls: $50 - $1000. Dyed Black Akoya Pearls: $100 - $2000.
The process of producing a pearl can range from 6 months to several years. Even before this, it takes about 3 years for the mollusk to reach a mature age in order to produce a pearl. A mollusk is only able to begin the pearl making process naturally or with the help of humans when it reaches this mature age.
While most mollusks produce mother of pearl, the same cannot be said for pearl gemstones. In fact, only a very low percentage of mollusks produce pearls. Even with advances in pearl cultivation that create ideal conditions for pearl development, an oyster or mussel developing a pearl is never guaranteed.
Oysters have been around for approximately 15 million years. An oyster becomes an adult when it turns one year old and can live as long as 20 years. Oysters can change their sex. In fact, they will often do it more than once.
Only mature oysters can produce pearls. Juvenile oysters are called 'spat'. What do oysters eat?
The Largest Pearl Ever Found: Discovery
The biggest recorded natural pearl in the world is the Pearl of Puerto. This pearl is often known as the Pearl of Puerto Princesa. A Filipino fisherman discovered it in the sea off the Philippine Islands. It weighs 75 pounds and is 2.2 feet long and wide.
Pinctada maxima is a species of pearl oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. There are two different color varieties: the Gold-lipped oyster and the Silver-lipped oyster. These bivalves are the largest pearl oysters in the world.
Some oysters can produce two to three pearls over the course of their lifetime, but only an oyster with pearls of good quality will repeat the process of producing a pearl.
After the pearls are extracted from the oysters, one-third of oysters are “recycled” and put through the culturing process again. The others are killed and discarded.
Vegans would argue that pearls aren't exactly cruelty free. According to PETA, culturing pearls involves surgically opening each oyster shell and inserting an irritant in the oyster, which is stressful to the animal.
The short answer is no. An oyster does not experience pain when creating a pearl, as the process occurs within the mollusk's shell and does not affect the animal itself.
A black pearl can also be formed from a white pearl-producing oyster that has an unusual black colouring in its nacre. This, however, is very rare and occurs in only one in 10,000 pearls.
Some of the world's most expensive pearls are so notoriously difficult to successfully produce and harvest that they are 'rarer than gold'.
Gold Pearls
One of the largest and rarest pearls found around the world is Gold in color. They are Golden South Sea pearls, cultured in the Philippine Islands. Golden South Sea pearls have only been available to pearl lovers since the late 1970s, and are known as the “Rolls Royce” of cultured pearls.