Tahitian Pearls: The Gem of Paradise
A green jungle rises out of a vast, calm blue sea ringed by a necklace of bright white sand. Palm trees sway in greeting Such is Tahiti, the largest island of French Polynesia, and the island that gives us the name of Tahitian pearls.
However, there are hundreds of islands in French Polynesia, many of which produce fine pearls in both black and white. But no matter if they are from Manuae, Mangareva, or anywhere in between, if theyre from French Polynesia, most laypeople call them all Tahitian pearls.
Atoll, Not Island
Big islands like Tahiti are mountainous, or to be more specific, are volcanoes. The little landmasses called atolls are volcanoes too. But over time, these volcanoes have been worn down and gotten smaller. The only land that still pokes up out of the ocean is the very top of the cone, and the land may only poke out a few feet. So the cone has essentially already filled up with seawater and become a part, though a protected part, of the ocean, with a ring of sandbars around it.
Inside the cones are the pearl farms, networks of nets and sections sheltering oysters in different stages of life. On piles out in the water are the small laboratories where workers insert an irritant into the oyster to make it produce world-renowned Tahitian pearls.
French Polynesia does produce white pearls, but their signature, one-of-a-kind gem is the black pearl. Black Tahitian pearls come from one particular subspecies of mollusk, named Pinctada margaritifera, commonly known as the black-lipped oyster.
The first place where French Polynesians were first able to successfully grow black pearls on a large scale is the atoll of Manihi, 300 miles northeast of Tahiti. The lagoon, in which several farmers raise pearls, is about six by twelve miles. The chief town, Turipaoa village, has about 400 inhabitants; a few more people live scattered along the rest of the atoll.
French Polynesians attribute the beauty, size, and popularity of Tahitian pearls to the perfect conditions under which they grow. To produce a big pearl with fine luster, an oyster needs absolutely clean water of just the right temperature.
Experts can even distinguish a pearl from different parts of French Polynesia. Pearls raised in the southernmost archipelago, the Gambier Islands, are said to have a distinct, slightly peacock green tinge from being raised in water just a few degrees cooler.
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