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Editor's note: Writer Doug Fiske and photographer Valerie Power, from GIA's Course Development department, visited akoya pearl farms and processing facilities in the Xuwen area on the Leizhou Peninsula of China in April 2007. The accompanying photos and captions tell some of the story of that visit. Look for Part II in the Spring Loupe.
Story by Doug Fiske
Photos by Valerie Power
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Our hosts harvested these akoya cultured pearlsas a demonstration. The nacre is very thin because nucleators implanted the beads only a few months before. Note the depth of the akoya shell and its gleaming mother of pearl.
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It's a little-known fact that Chinese pearl farmers have been culturing akoya pearls in Southern China since about 1960. Harvest sizes and cultured pearl quality have followed something of a roller coaster ride as the industry suffered growing pains and lurched toward maturity.
In 2006, Chinese farmers produced about 22 tons (20 metric tons) of akoya cultured pearls along the southern coasts of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces (see map, below). Three of the larger processing centers are in Beihai in the west and Xuwen and Zhanjiang on the peninsula.
Some Chinese akoya farmers identify the mollusk they use as Pinctada fucata martensi, the same species Japanese farmers identify as the akoya mollusk. Other researchers identify the Chinese mollusk as Pinctada chemnitzi . There has been so much hybridization that either species' purity as a cultured pearl producer in China or Japan is questionable.
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Workers on a pearl farm raft remove marine growth from mollusk shells with a fast chopping motion, using a tool that resembles a mason’s trowel. They periodically hone the blade on a sharpening stone as they work.
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The size and quality of the Chinese akoya harvest varies with the immediate economic needs of the estimated 2,000 farmers who grow them. Many switch from culturing akoyas if shrimp farming or other aquaculture looks more lucrative.
If they need fast cash, they might shorten the akoya pearl growth period, thereby producing many cultured pearls with thin, poor-quality nacre. Historically, these results have often hurt the image of Chinese akoya cultured pearls. Given a longer pearl growth period, comparable growing conditions, and the same sophisticated processing and sorting techniques, Chinese and Japanese akoya cultured pearl quality are comparable.
The Chinese akoya industry was devastated last August (four months after the GIA visit) when a massive typhoon swept across the South China Sea. Torrential rains turned salt water to fresh and killed millions of akoya mollusks. With government and private help, the industry has begun to recover, but the harvests are predicted to be severely reduced for the next few years. While this will affect the supply of Chinese akoya cultured pearls, it will also affect the overall volume because many Chinese akoyas are integrated with the Japanese harvests.
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Hundreds of rafts like this float in the bay. Workers come and go in small boats, but one or two stay in the hut overnight to protect the mollusks from thieves. The windmill generates electricity.
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Dogs are common on both freshwater and akoya pearl farms in China. They serve as guards, eagerly eat any mollusk meat that becomes available and aren’t open to affectionate petting by Western visitors.
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The nucleators – also called grafters – are predominantly young women who perform only one task: implanting a shell bead and tissue piece in the host mollusk’s gonad. Others cut mantle tissue from donor mollusks, slice it into tiny pieces and provide it to the nucleators.
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Two surprising things about akoya mollusks at nucleation are their small size – 2.5-2.8 inches (6.4-7 centimeters) from the lip to the hinge – and the flexibility of their thin shells. This nucleator is implanting a 6 millimeter shell bead.
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Akoya pearl farmers build graft sheds and walkways on stilts or concrete platforms along the shore of Longye Bay because the structures are in the tidal zone. There is no electricity at this location, so the shed walls are composed of posts to admit daylight; workers tie large cloths to the posts to block the wind.
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Workers return the mollusks to the bay as quickly as possible after they’re nucleated. One man carries hundreds of nucleated mollusks in lantern nets that house them through the post-nucleation recovery period. Other men load the mollusk-laden nets into boats that carry them to rafts far offshore.
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Processors bleach virtually all akoya cultured pearls to remove impurities and ensure uniform whiteness. They commonly use hydrogen peroxide and bright fluorescent light.
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Young women with strong, healthy eyes sort and match akoya cultured pearls and string them as temporary strands. They take periodic breaks to rest their eyes and, at this location, two hours off midway through a long work day.
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