Yet the oyster deaths continued long after the ... author of a book on pearls (see History of Pearls and Culture of Freshwater Pearls). "I would never attribute it to an unidentified mystery ...

Natural freshwater pearls occur in mussels for the same reason that saltwater pearls occur in oysters. Foreign material, usually a sharp object or parasite, enters a mussel and cannot be expelled.

Pearls are produced by marine and freshwater mollusks known as bivalves. Bivalve mollusks include oysters, mussels, clams, scallops and more. In 1908, American gemologist George Frederick Kunz co ...

Only oysters of the Ostreidae family can make pearls, but many other types of mollusks can produce these gems, such as ...

Instead, pearls are formed when an irritant, such as a food particle or a parasite, slips between the shells of an oyster or other ... in the case of cultured freshwater pearls.

Most pearls come from oysters, which thrive in both freshwater and saltwater environments. Oysters are bivalves that means ...

Australia is the last place on earth where pearls are cultured in wild oysters. But South Sea pearl ... swamps world markets with cheaply produced freshwater pearls. Photo/Video: Paolo Bosonin ...

To date, around 8,500 freshwater oysters have already been cultured. Dr Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary-General of EAD, said: “The Abu Dhabi Pearls Centre is the first facility in the Middle ...

Simply sign up to the Sustainability myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. Produced by oysters in oceans or mussels in rivers, pearls have been coveted by humans since the Bronze Age.

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 ...