The Australian cultured pearling industry currently grosses over $200 million per annum. The industry is carefully managed through catch and seeding quotas to maintain the pearl oyster resource. An annual quota of 600,000 ‘wild’ collected shell is allocated between the 19 pearl farming licenses in Australia, 18 of which are located in Western Australia.
Divers ‘drift’ over the oyster beds of the Australian North West coast between January and March each year to collect ‘Wild’ caught shell for use on Farm for Pearl production. As an industry we are restricted to collecting no more than 572,000 oysters of a minimum legal size of 120mm. Oyster are housed in Pearl panels and rested for a period of 4 months on a bottom lease. However, heavy investment into research by Australian companies has led to an increased production of hatchery produced Pinctada maxima with a minimum legal size of 90mm. This technique reduces the cost and hazards of collecting wild shell whilst allowing more control over oyster growth, health and production.
Hatchery and wild oysters are held in large re-circulating tanks onboard seeding vessels prior to their first operation. Oysters are relaxed and ‘pegged’ open to allow a pearl technician to perform the operation in a sterile room onboard the vessel.
Highly trained pearl technicians perform the delicate seeding operation. A small nucleus formed from the shell of the Mississippi mussel is inserted into an incision in the oysters gonad. The nucleus is coupled with a piece of nacre secreting mantle tissue. The shell is then safely housed within a protective pearl panel and placed in the ocean. Divers ‘drift’ over the oyster beds of the Australian North West coast between January and March each year to collect ‘Wild’ caught shell for use on Farm for Pearl production. As an industry we are restricted to collecting no more than 572,000 oysters of a minimum legal size of 120mm. Oyster are housed in Pearl panels and rested for a period of 4 months on a bottom lease. During their two years on a ‘farm’ the oysters are cleaned and nurtured before being examined by pearl technicians who hope to find a large and lustrous south sea pearl.
These technicians are highly skilled and highly paid professional performing up to 500 operations a day during harvest time. They generally work for 3 months annually and can earn in excess of AU$100,000 for this period. Technicians have been predominantly Japanese however the success of the Australian industry has lead to increased diversification with Australian technicians now more common.
