The Luscious Black Lips of Pina-Colada-Margarita

The Intrepid Jerry is currently anchored in Onemea Bay, Taravai, surrounded by the odd mixture of coconut palms and evergreen trees that march up the island’s low hills in rank-and-file order, with the palms consigned to the rear at the shorelines because their mode of reproduction happens to involve giant nut-like balls that are better suited to bobbing in the sea than staying put on a slope. Intermittently one overhears a heated discourse of bleating originating from deep in the forest, presumably caused by goats being goats. Aboard, Jerry’s crew are resting their 50-something bodies and minds after a couple days of novel but tiring experiences.

One of these experiences was a pearl farm tour. Not normally excited to go on a “farm tour” as such things always involve a lot of dirt, manure, bad smells, and grunting noises, Mel had to remind herself that the pearl kind of farming produces not a cob of corn or a sculpted chunk of flesh after years of work but rather a sparkly gemstone. And unlike its kin such as diamonds and rubies, pearls are not laboriously dug out of the Earth with picks and shovels but rather extracted out of living oysters with delicate dental instruments. Vanilla and pearls in paradise? Is this place for real?

And so it passed that a truck and then a large metal boat deposited Jerry’s crew and some other English-speaking cruisers on one of the little houses on stilts on the western side of Mangareva, where friendly Mohea explained how her pearl farm works. Transporting us to the other side of the island for the tour was important. In the Gambiers, the island of Mangareva physically segregates the oysters by sex, much like Victorians after dinner: boys (making pearls) to the west, girls (making eggs) to the east. Being on the western shore allowed us to appreciate the entire process.

Pearl Farming

Mohea was an amazing tour guide and shared many facts about pearl farming, probably better described as “oyster husbandry” given how much the oysters run the show. Here are the more fascinating bits of our knowledge gained, both from the tour and Mel’s internet research afterwards:

The black pearls of the Gambiers primarily come from one species of oyster, the black-lipped pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera). Mohea gave us a mnemonic for the scientific name: “Pina-Colada-Margarita.” Yum!
The margaritas are princesses; even the males. They must be handled gently and cleaned regularly in order to produce good pearls.
The oysters are sequential, protandric hermaphrodites. meaning they can change sexes. They begin life as males and transition into females as they age and become bigger. And smarter. Environmental conditions, such as sea temperature, can influence the timing of this change, and sometimes they switch back and forth.
Sea temperature also influences the spawning period. Typically when the sea begins to warm in September, sperm and eggs are released into the water via broadcast spawning, and eggs are fertilized randomly. This procreation event apparently fills the lagoon with a “rich, umami, and “planty” sea aroma”. As they say in Nebraska when you drive past a corn field freshly fertilized with manure, “Smells like money!”
Once egg and sperm unite, the resulting larvae is called “spat”, and the little spats hopefully snag on one of the many “spat collectors” that dangle from the numerous pearl floats in the lagoon. These collectors are made of plastic and resemble three-foot-long sections of Marilyn Manson’s black Christmas tree tinsel. Or Mel’s hair when she runs out of mousse.
Since 2018 there has been a “spat” drought, with the spat collectors housing less than 20% of the former number of baby oysters. The cause is presumably multi-factorial, with climate change being the big culprit via rising seas, rising sea temperatures, and changing currents through the lagoon. There also may be contributions from microplastics and selective breeding causing a loss of genetic diversity and therefore resilience to changes in the environment.
You can eat the oyster’s adductor muscle, which pulls the shell together, and even get it on the local pizza, where it is called, “korori”. Caving to peer pressure, Mel ate a raw korori during the tour. How was it? A once-in-a-lifetime experience!
See the photos for more cool pearl farming facts!

The Color of Pearls

Even the pearls themselves are fascinating! Who knew pearls would prompt Mel to learn about materials science? The pearly coating, called nacre, consists of tiles of calcium carbonate in a crystalline structure called aragonite. Organic aragonite forms tiles that can stack on each other. These tiles, and the proteinacous glue that holds them together, called conchiolin, is secreted by the mantle of the oyster to wall in an irritant.

Some very smart people studied pearls to determine the underpinnings of the different pearl colors. Fascinating facts Mel learned:

The nacre of black pearls is structurally the most neatly organized of all pearl colors. The blackest ones have the least irregularity in size, shape, and spacing of the aragonite tiles. The structure must be very soothing to view under the microscope. It turns out our Pina-Colada-Margaritas are the Martha Stewart of oysters!
The black pearl nacre also has the narrowest spacing of all the pearl colors between rows and stacks of tiles.
Scientifically speaking, the nacre of a pearl is a “multi-layer thin-film diffraction layer stack.” Mel is not sure what this means exactly, but apparently the glue between the tiles has holes in it, like a grating. Organizing the tiles and the proteinaceous glue in layers creates the color and also a highly reflective mirror effect – the luster of the pearl. Humans use synthetic multi-layer thin films in the high-tech worlds of lasers, semiconductors, electronics, and optics. Okay then. Maybe the male oysters aren’t so dumb…
It is thought that the cooler waters of the Gambier slows down nacre formation and allows it to become more organized and with thinner layers, producing a lustrous, black pearl.
There also may be a component of melanin from the “black lips” of the oyster.

**The tiles of aragonite and their arrangement in nacre. The gaps between the rows of tiles is what influences the color and luster. Images from Snow et. al.**

**How tile regularity and the thickness of the gap between rows influences pearl color. From Snow et. al**.

Motu Clean-Up Day

Those who made it through Mel’s science class today will learn about the next adventure for Jerry’s crew. For World Oceans Day, 33 cruisers and several locals set out to pick up and process trash, hopefully helping to address the “microplastics” problem. After meeting at the crack of dawn, Mel and Greg boarded a shallow-draft powerboat which deposited them, their noble guide, a hardy French sailor, and several teenagers on Tepapuri, a small motu on the north side of the archipelago. After four hours of core work consisting of bending over, straightening up again, and gingerly walking over coral and holes dug by pigs, the trash collectors were treated to a feast and then partook in a massive community trash-triage effort.

The trash sorting was something to watch. Mel studied the locals especially, finding several vigorous souls, men and women, who zoomed around the tarp, everywhere at once, powerfully lifting all sorts of erratically-shaped farm and fishing refuse into the appropriate bin. Maybe it’s the American in her that seeks out the hard workers. Frequently her eyes would settle on “Orange Guy,” presumably not a wallflower, who never sat down, constantly hauling trash even while jamming to music, smoking a cigarette, or drinking from a coconut. Another standout was “Smiles and Muscles”, real name Tinihau, who worked hard to drum up enthusiasm throughout the day, efforts that proved futile as we all sat and stared, exhausted, on the slow ferry ride home.

Enjoy my yin and yang photos of pearls… and trash!

We head to Rikitea through the stripes of the blue tiger

We always have someone on watch at the front to spy submerged pearl floats and underwater coral mountains

When rounding the southern part of Taravai, you can encounter big waves

Does this ever get old? No. No it doesn’t.

The Southern Cross always looks so happy and free!

Mohea teaches us how to be pearl farmers. She even gave us a test at the end!

The pearl farm floats are numerous here. You apply for your “plot” in Tahiti.

We approach a pearl processing shack.

Barges pull up to the processing hut so that the pearl-bearing oysters can be cleaned and inspected.

These guys work long days, some in wetsuits all day, seven days a week, in an industry with a lot of worker turnover

The pearl farmers were working constantly during the tour

Washing the princesses. Most of them are power-washed, but some farmers employ a slower method of allowing the fish to clean them by eating the anemones and barnacles growing on their shells.

We would see these plastic mats later in large numbers, washed up on the beaches.

View from the processing hut. Much nicer than cow patties.

Mohea runs a tight ship!

The black lips of the oyster

The pearls are made by putting a small round “seed” along with a piece of the black lips (mantle) inside the oyster’s GONAD. I don’t think a pearl is what you would get if you tried this with humans.

The medium-sized pearl oysters are attached to the lines than dangle in the ocean. Other oysters and sea creatures hang out there too.

Pearls among swine. We were instructed not to touch the pink bladders, as they would explode and cause itching. Never found out what they were.

It was fun trying to make this nice tour assistant smile. Giving her an extra kokiri to eat is one way!

We all get a chance to pick out an oyster and pry it open.

Our friends Jenni and Tara from Lorikeet

The larger oysters are collected in mats. This mat resembles the shoe organizers in the back-to-school section of Target.

Back to the water! The oysters can be out of the water for 8 hours.

The niduses (nidii?) of the pearls are from freshwater mussels from Mississippi. Well bless its heart!

Mohea, with a facial expression often seen on surgeons in the OR, demonstrates pearl extraction and grafting. This requires highly skilled labor. Many of the grafters are from China.

Mohea also showed us a sample deck of the pearl colors, and we are taught how to grade them. Luster is a major factor.

Mohea stops on the way back to chat with another pearl farm worker

We get to take home our oysters as well as the pearls we extracted. Next task: figure out what to do with them!

The next morning we get up at the crack of dawn to assemble for the cleanup day.

Great turnout!

I think the average age of the cruisers at the cleanup is at least 20 years more than the average age of the locals

This pension on the other side of the island must run a slick tourist operation

A song and prayer before heading out

Almost every Mangarevan is wearing a T-shirt from a local event

Our site of departure is also where oyster shells are stacked for export to Asia and the production of mother-of-pearl

Pretty view of the anchorage at sunrise. Mel has not seen it yet at that time of day. Because she is not a sadist.

Local teens come with us and work hard.

A pit stop on the way to a motu so this kid can retrieve a forgotten item

Another pearl shack

We easily win a race in our powerboat against the ferry. We quickly forgot this fact and foolishly boarded the ferry for the trip back, which took forever.

Reveling in our victory.

A nice tour of the anchorage and some more pearl shacks. One does worry about an economy almost entirely driven by an agricultural product at the whims of the climate, and sea!

The location of our clean-up motu, where we found many plastic bottles and pearl farming paraphernalia on the southern beaches.

Greg maneuvering over coral to clean up the island. Mel doesn’t have a ton of photos of this phase — trash is not very photogenic.

There are many lovely palm groves on the island

Fishing net

A family raises pigs on the island. We later learned they like to wallow in sand.

This pig is off to try to break our ankles by digging a hole. Bad piggy!

The local family’s vehicle

The family builds attractive houses from coconut husks to protect baby trees from the pigs

We take a break to appreciate the natural beauty of the motu, once we have removed the trash

We load our large trash piles onto a boat

Wish we spoke French

A sand bank separates one motu from the next

Mel tries to make one of the trash piles pretty

The teens make quick work of transferring the trash to the boat

Even the young folks are tired at this point!

There is so much shallow coral here that we are unlikely to bring Jerry up this way, so we soak in the beauty

Back on “triage island”, our team submits its entry into the “most trash gathered” contest. Wish I knew French, so I would know who won.

Orange guy trash collects in style

I found this little guy when off to use the…er…bathroom…

The triage tarp. Let the sorting begin!

The trash is loaded onto this barge and shipped to Tahiti. Orange Guy is double-handing it!

The cruisers and Smiles & Muscles send the barge on its way

A hard days’ work

One barge down, another to go!

Happy World Oceans Day!

We are all filming the barge. Meanwhile, Orange Guy has work to do.

We take the slow boat to Rikitea. It comes equipped with stacking chairs and an extra loud speaker system. You know, the bare necessities. Hatty and Mel are so tired they forget a step in the Macarena!