into the shell of the oyster where they want the pearl to grow. This triggers the oyster's defense response, and it starts coating that piece of tissue with nacre. The vast majority of pearls on ...

Japanese pearl farmers reaped only 56.6 tons of akoya-grown pearls in 1996, down 22 percent from the 1993 harvest. Currently, production is just a quarter of what it was in 1995. Pearl buyers ...