Facts, Myths & Lore... Facts: Saltwater Pearls ‘generally’ come from Oysters. (read below) Freshwater Pearls come from Muscles. Clams do not produce pearls. (read below) Snails (marine snails), e.g., Conch, Abalone, etc., produce some pearls. (read below) To ‘correctly’ call an object a “pearl” it must posses several properties, e.g., be covered by nacre [1] and have some degree of luster [2]. Some difference of opinion on these conditions exist between the jewelry and scientific fields. Technically, all mollusks are ‘capable’ of producing ‘pearl-like’ objects although most people in the jewelry industry feel only objects which meet certain criteria, re: nacre & luster, should be classified as pearls. The various mollusks that produce pearls, e.g., oysters, muscles & snails, are ‘normally’ not the same species used for food consumption. Two exceptions would be the Conch & Abalone which are primarily harvested for their meat but sometimes (also) produce pearls. (Abalone & Conchs are gastropods, e.g., single shelled animals) Today, much of the Abalone meat seen for sale comes from aquaculture farms. Several of these farms have had fair success producing Abalone “mabe” pearls but have not yet been very successful producing full pearls. Abalone pearls are typically very baroque in shape and often very colorful like the inside of the Abalone shell. Conch (pronounced ‘Konk’,) pearls are not aqua cultured, rather are found in the wild. Harvesting live Conch from US waters is illegal because the animal is considered an endangered species so most Conch meat comes from Caribbean islands and the Bahamas. Occasionally a pearl will be found in a Conch, in the species called “Queen” or “Pink-Lipped.” Conch pearls are typically baroque shaped and range in color from whitish to very pink. (see a pink Conch pearl in the image below) Abalone & Conch pearls are a very small segment of the worldwide pearl marketplace and therefore of minor economic importance to the jewelry industry. [1] Nacre: (pronounced ‘nay’-ker’) is also commonly known by the name “mother-of-perl.” This is the basic substance secreted by a mollusk to line the inside of it’s shell and is what the mollusk deposits (builds up) in concentric layers around a foreign object, e.g., implanted nucleus, etc., to form a pearl. Nacre is composed of about 95% calcium carbonate (CaCO3) secreted in a crystalline form called aragonite (‘ah-rag’-ah-nite’). The mollusk also deposits another compound, called conchiolin (‘kon’- kee -oh-lin’) (a complex protein) in alternate layers with the aragonite. The conchiolin forms chambers, in a matrix structure, to hold the mineral crystals of aragonite. The combination of these substances is called nacre. [2] Luster: For more information check out my Pearl Class ...see “services.”Services.htmlshapeimage_5_link_0