New Guide About Tahitian Pearls - really?

[Hanaleimom]

I found this prlog while searching for "tahitian black pearls" on bing.com http://www.prlog.org/11512437-tahit...ahitian-pearls-by-gia-alumni-steve-suard.html. This didn't surface with google.com. It was posted about a day ago. The article directs you to http://tahitian-pearls.com/, which belongs to GIA Alumni Steve Suard. I would expect a GIA graduate to be able to distinguish between FW and genuine Tahitian pearls. Maybe he doesn't specialize in pearls.

I haven't navigated throughout the entire site yet. It seems to be incomplete, but most information are there. I am not impressed ... yet. The picture of the strand on prlog and the first picture in tahitian-pearls.com's home page are the same. But the strand is not composed of Tahitian pearls. Those pearls are dyed FW potato pearls.

 

[Hanaleimom]

The picture itself was labeled Tahitian Pearl Necklace (see screen shot). Open the PDF file and enlarge it to see the labeling at the top left corner of the picture. It's hard to see in this post.

 

[Caitlin]

Brilliant, Cathy!
You caught those guys in the act of pearl cheating, big time, or looking really dumb!

Look at the bottom of the page. He APPEARS to be a member of the CPAA. He SEEMS to have won a prize for a Tahitian Pearl ring, but those pearls LOOK so much like Freshwaters, that even if they were Tahitians it would be stupid to buy them, because they look like potato pearls.

What does the CPAA do about stuff like this?

 

[Caitlin]

I'll drop him an email with this link in it. Let him speak for himself!

 

[Hanaleimom]

He's the "Tahiti" finalist of the Perles de Tahiti 1st Edition Tahitian Pearl Trophy http://www.tahitianpearltrophy.com/site/en/488.html. I was assuming the winner would be the ultimate in that category. But they had finalists for each country that participated.

 

[Caitlin]

cc: to P-G.com:
Hi Steve
Check out this link:
https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/tahitian-pearls/4689-new-guide-about-tahitian-pearls-really.html

You do appear to be selling FW potato pearls as Tahitians. Since the Pearl-guide is full of GIA trained pearl experts and is even run by a distinguished member of the CPAA, you may want to clarify what your photo depicts...

 

[Caitlin]

You are so entirely correct. And he CLAIMS he won!!! Every inch of that ad is sleazy.

We can report him to the CPAA- or will one of our local members read this and comment of how the CPAA likes that kind of use of its membership- if indeed he is a member at all.

The rest of his website is eccentric at best and very misleading as well. And to think he got such a good domain name!

A big Pearly-Police congratulations to you Cathy!

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

...and very misleading as well.

Anyone ever seen a 10 pound Pinctada margaritifera?

They are usually found in the black-lipped oysters called Pinctada margaritifera which are quite larger, sometimes more than twelve inches across and weight approximately ten pounds or more.

I've never even seen a geoduck that big.

 

[Hanaleimom]

I believe he sets up websites and sells them after a year or so. See LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/tahiti. He's still keeping the pearls' website (1 month owner) and tahiti ecotourism one.

Although he gave photo credits to maisondelaperle.pf, his "Tahitian Pearl Pioneer" also came from Maison de la Perle's website.

 

[Hanaleimom]

Anyone ever seen a 10 pound Pinctada margaritifera?



I've never even seen a geoduck that big.

It came from cpaa.org http://cpaa.org/pearls_types.asp, bottom of page "Tahitian Pearls" section.

 

[jshepherd]

I think it might be possible that the owner didn't create the site and that a developer just grabbed the picture and put it on the site thinking dyed FW must be Tahitian. I find a lot of our pictures scattered around the Internet and that is usually what has happened (or at least I am told).

 

[Caitlin]

Anyone ever seen a 10 pound Pinctada margaritifera?



I've never even seen a geoduck that big.

I'd love to have some salad plates that large!

 

[Marianne]

Well, whoever wrote the text needs a grammar lesson or six!

Marianne

 

[Caitlin]

I think it might be possible that the owner didn't create the site and that a developer just grabbed the picture and put it on the site thinking dyed FW must be Tahitian. I find a lot of our pictures scattered around the Internet and that is usually what has happened (or at least I am told).

I think you are right. You'da thought that someone would have grabbed that domain and I guess he's the one that did. Still, even as an illustration of what a site could look like should be careful about the details. I am back to thinking that is a FW he carelessly used.

He shouldn't have that site up at all unless it is going to be less than laughable.

 

[SteveM]

Anyone ever seen a 10 pound Pinctada margaritifera?

Goes a long way towards explaining the fabled Olympic shot-putting edge demonstrated by SP islanders:



Oyster-chucking.

 

[Marianne]

Crying now Steve. Great way to end the week!
Thanks for the mega-laugh
Marianne

 

[Caitlin]

Here's his email to me:


Thank you for your message and link, sorry but the photo will be removed from site soon and replace by a real nice tahitian pearl necklace, this photo was from a photostock image and I did not check my front page since my webmaster add these. Also the press release was done by a journalist writer and she did copy the photo to add on prlog. Unfortunaly I can't remove that picture on PRLOG.

Sincerely

----- Original Message -----
From: "Caitlin Williams" <pearlguide03@gmail.com>
To: <contact@tahitian-pearls.com>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 9:59 AM
Subject: freshwater potato pearls

 

[Hanaleimom]

The FW picture was removed from his website and PRLOG. He also changed the word "winner" to "finalist" below the ring at the bottom of the page. Today it reads "Tahitian Pearl Trophy Finalist".

 

[Caitlin]

Cool! If his mockup is so easy to find, it ought to be accurate. Marianne is correct. All the grammar, spelling, and visual content should be correct, if it is out there on the web pretending to be a future site.

Much better than if he had been a dishonest, underhanded, etc. businessman out to cheat people into buying a fw as a Tahitian. Now if only those durn ebayers who do that could be confronted- except there seem to be literally thousands of them..........

 

[Josh]

About that ten pound margaritifera... While diving in the southern islands I found a live wild specimen that was darn close if it wasn't the full 10lbs. It was living happily in the sand. To measure it underwater I put the hinge against my chest and was amazed to see my left arm circle half of it while my left hand gripped the elbow side of my right bicep. I had never seen one even close to that size then later in the same dive while poking around for fish I saw another one growing shelf-like inside a cave of approximately the same size.