What would you call this type of pearl?

[bluelotus777]

If you accidentally find a pearl in a mussel that was cultivated for eating (not for pearls), would this be considered natural or cultured? The mussel does come from culture, but the pearl has not been created by intervention from man...so I am wondering...
In case you are wondering, I did not find one - even though I sure wished I had! Would love to come across one one day but it's rather unlikely I guess, but this question just crossed my mind and I am sure someone here knows!

 

[Bodecia]

Natural bluelotus777, Natural.


Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Not necessarily. Most oysters are reared in hatcheries and relayed to farms. Those are cultural events.

Only pearls from wild stocks can be deemed as natural.

 

[Bodecia]

Surely they open the oysters and try to tamper with them. How could anyone ever know even if x-rayed.

Must admit I was thinking wild oysters but still seems weird to me.

Dave are you out in the wild yet?

Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[Bodecia]

Meant to say "don't try to tamper with oysters" - duhh

Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Surely they (don't) open the oysters and try to tamper with them. How could anyone ever know even if x-rayed.

Must admit I was thinking wild oysters but still seems weird to me.

Dave are you out in the wild yet?

Reared in tanks, treated with disinfectants, relayed in vessels and suspended from strings or trays are cultural events. The OP, in their own words used the term "cultivate".

The definition for natural pearls is no human intervention, by any means. When oysters are handled in volume, they'll strike each other or rocks. As juveniles, they are fed prepared food and relayed to areas where food sources or parasites are varied. Some pearls may occur spontaneously while others occur incidentally.

A good example is P-G contributor antz. They farm abalone and occasionally encounter pearls, but don't claim them to be natural even though they weren't induced.

If shells are harvested from wild stocks and pearls are discovered at that time, they can be deemed natural.

And yes, I'm at Clayoquot Island now. The tides are only just getting low enough to hike out to the reefs. Tomorrow!

 

[Caitlin]

Feral Pearl? The pearl was not intentional, nor was the cultivation meant for pearls.... Abalone is often cultivated for meat, yet their pearls are abalone pearls no matter where they come from, right?

I think SoC has come up with a standard for that. Please correct me if I am wrong, but if the Mollusk has a pearl in it, they set it aside and do not implant anything in it. The pearl occurred with no human intervention and they do not intervene past identifying it has a pearl (xray?). I think they gather their spat wild, but am not sure.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Some producers collect wild beach spat. Some will have pearls. Natural, yes. Once it's relayed to a new location, it's technically aquaculture. There is a line though. If an oyster farmer has the oyster in inventory for two years, and x-radiography shows a pearl is three years old, you have a natural pearl that was reared on a farm.

Otherwise smaller or younger pearls may have been caused by relaying, different predators, new food, varied salinity. Any reason really, subsequent to a means of human intervention.

The farmer can tell them apart. Many of them grow in different places and do different things from what the farmer does. If you know your source, that's something, chances are though, it was grown from spat on a farm. By far, the greatest part of the commercial oyster market are high tech hatcheries and ideal grow-out sites.

Beach oysters in restaurants are rare nowadays and only from a few specialized places. Again, if you know the origin of the oyster, one can determine a pearl's origin. Otherwise, it's a guess with odds not so good.

Food grade shellfish is tracked vigorously by federal law in many countries. Normally, everything can be traced to it's source.

So my answer to the OP, is both results are possible once the background work is done.

Again, much to be said about provenance. Feral is a good term. Rogue over wild.

 

[bluelotus777]

Thanks for all your replies. Seems like there is no completely clearcut answer to that question. I would have also thought that, if an oyster grows on a farm, is fed, etc., then it wouldn't be possible to say the pearl is "natural" just because no one implanted anything in it...but apparently it's not that simple.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

I'm sure pearl or oyster farmers see these all the time.

Rather than risking ambiguity, most would consider them cultured or destroy them.

Once a pearl is removed from the farm, there is a high likelihood someone will dubiously reinvent it's origin.

It's my position, a lot of so-called naturals fall into this category.