Editing Pearl (section)

==History==

===Pearl hunting===
{{main|Pearl hunting}}
[[File:Waterclothes.jpg|thumb|A 14th-century piece of clothing used by [[Kuwait]]i divers searching for pearls in the [[Persian Gulf]]]]

The ancient chronicle [[Mahavamsa]] mentions the thriving pearl industry in the port of Oruwella in the Gulf of Mannar in [[Sri Lanka]]. It also records that eight varieties of pearls accompanied [[Prince Vijaya]]'s embassy to the Pandyan king as well as king [[Devanampiya Tissa]]'s embassy to [[Emperor Ashoka]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Senaveratna|first=John M|title=The story of the Sinhalese: From the most ancient times up to the end of "The Mahavasna", or great dynasty; Vijaya to Maha Sena (B.C. 543 to A.D. 302)|year=1930|publisher=W.M.A. Wahid|pages=16–19, 46, 130, 144–48, 161–63, 213|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X9TeEcMi0e0C&q=pearl|isbn=9788120612716|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220052616/https://books.google.com/books?id=X9TeEcMi0e0C&q=pearl#v=snippet&q=pearl&f=false|archive-date=December 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/TheBookOfThePearlTheHistoryArtScienceAndIndustryOfTheQueenOf |last1=Kunz |first1=George F. |last2=Stevenson |first2=Charles |author-link1=George Frederick Kunz |title=The book of the pearl |publisher=The Century Co. |location=New York |year=1908 |page=[https://archive.org/details/TheBookOfThePearlTheHistoryArtScienceAndIndustryOfTheQueenOf/page/n31 2]  }}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] (23–79 AD) praised the pearl fishery of the Gulf as most productive in the world.<ref name=j1>{{cite journal|title=India and the Indian Ocean Fisheries|url=http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/874/1/Article_03.pdf|journal=Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India|author=R. Raghu Prasad and P. V. Ramachandran Nair|volume=15|year=1973|pages=1–19|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718171728/http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/874/1/Article_03.pdf|archive-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eUF_rS8FEoIC&pg=PA227|page=227|title=Twentieth century impressions of Ceylon: its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources|author=Arnold Wright|year=1999|publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-1335-5|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118114417/https://books.google.com/books?id=eUF_rS8FEoIC&pg=PA227|archive-date=January 18, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=njhbCCdoMFgC&pg=PA6|page=6|title=The Indian Pearl Fisheries of the Gulf of Manar and Palk Bay|author=James Hornell|publisher=BiblioBazaar|year=2009|isbn=978-1-110-87096-7|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118132448/https://books.google.com/books?id=njhbCCdoMFgC&pg=PA6|archive-date=January 18, 2017}}</ref> 
 
For thousands of years, seawater pearls were retrieved by divers in the [[Indian Ocean]] in areas such as the [[Persian Gulf]], the Red Sea and the [[Gulf of Mannar]].<ref>{{cite book|last=De Silva|first=K. M.|title=Volume 2 of History of Ceylon, History of Ceylon: History of Sri Lanka|year=1995|publisher=Ceylon University Press|location=Peradeniya|isbn=978-955-589-004-5|page=56|oclc=952216}}</ref><ref name=Appreciation>{{cite web |url=http://www.internetstones.com/history-of-the-discovery-appreciation-pearls-organic-gem-perfected-nature-2.html |title=History of the Discovery and Appreciation of Pearls – the Organic Gem Perfected by Nature |publisher=internetstones.com |access-date=January 31, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206212119/http://www.internetstones.com/history-of-the-discovery-appreciation-pearls-organic-gem-perfected-nature-2.html |archive-date=December 6, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=GULF>{{cite web |url=http://adias-uae.com/publications/carter05.pdf |title=The History and Prehistory of Pearling in the Persian Gulf |author=Robert Carter  |date=2005 |access-date=January 31, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513025900/http://adias-uae.com/publications/carter05.pdf |archive-date=May 13, 2016 }}</ref> Evidence also suggest a [[prehistoric]] origin to pearl diving in these regions.<ref name=Appreciation/><ref name=GULF/> Starting in the [[Han dynasty]] (206 BC–220 AD), the [[China|Chinese]] hunted extensively for seawater pearls in the [[South China Sea]], particularly in what is now [[Tolo Harbour]] in [[Hong Kong]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bycroft|first=Michael|title=Gems in the Early Modern World: Materials, Knowledge and Global Trade, 1450–1800|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2019|isbn=9783319963792|location=Switzerland|pages=124}}</ref> [[Tanka people|Tanka]] pearl divers of twelfth century China attached ropes to their waists in order to be safely brought back up to the surface.<ref>{{cite book|title=Science and Civilisation in China|page=672|last1=Needham|first1=Joseph|year=1971|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521070607}}</ref>

[[File:77-Fisiologo di Berna - rapporto delle perle.jpg|thumb|''Catching of pearls'', [[Bern Physiologus]] (9th century)]]
When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they discovered that around the islands of [[Cubagua]] and [[Isla Margarita|Margarita]], some 200&nbsp;km north of the [[Venezuela]]n coast, was an extensive pearl bed (a bed of pearl oysters). One discovered and named pearl, [[La Peregrina pearl]], was offered to [[Philip II of Spain]] who intended to give it as a gift for his daughter on the occasion of her marriage, but the King found it so beautiful that he kept it for himself. Later, he elevated it to be part of the Spanish Crown Jewels. From then on, the pearl was recorded in every royal inventory for more than 200 years.  According to [[Inca Garcilaso de la Vega|Garcilasso de la Vega]], who says that he saw La Peregrina at Seville in 1607,<ref>Garcilasso, "Historie des Incas, Rois du Perou," Amsterdam, 1704, Vol. II, p. 352.</ref> this was found at [[Panama]] in 1560 by a [[slave]] worker who was rewarded with his liberty and his owner with the office of alcalde of Panama.

Margarita pearls are extremely difficult to find today and are known for their unique yellowish color. 
Before the beginning of the 20th century, [[pearl hunting]] was the most common way of harvesting pearls. Divers manually pulled oysters from ocean floors and river bottoms and checked them individually for pearls. Not all mussels and oysters produce pearls. In a haul of three tons, only three or four oysters will produce perfect pearls.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

====British Isles====
Pearls were one of the attractions that drew Julius Caesar to Britain.<ref>"It was not only Britain's mineral resources or her pretty slaves that had persuaded Caesar to make his military move across the Channel that summer: according to his biographer Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus it was something quite different. It was her pearls." Finlay, Victoria. Jewels: A Secret History (Kindle Locations 1264–1267). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</ref> They are, for the most part, freshwater pearls from mussels. Pearling was banned in the U.K. in 1998 due to the endangered status of river mussels.<ref>"Unlike sea pearls, which come from oysters, freshwater pearls come from mussels. Although farmed mussels are common throughout the world, wild colonies are now so endangered that in 1998, pearling was forbidden in the UK river system. Finlay, Victoria. Jewels: A Secret History (Kindle Locations 1289–1290). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</ref> Discovery and publicity about the sale for a substantial sum of the [[Abernethy pearl]] in the [[River Tay]] had resulted in the heavy exploitation of mussel colonies during the 1970s and 80s by weekend warriors.<ref>"The new weekend pearl-fishers were "mostly middle-aged men driving big cars with beer coolers in the back," and they would spend afternoons pulling hundreds of live mussels out of the rivers, opening them, and throwing away the shells, with not a care for conservation or the breeding season. All they cared about was finding another Abernethy pearl. Finlay, Victoria. Jewels: A Secret History (Kindle Locations 1375–1377). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</ref> When it was permitted it was carried on mainly by [[Scottish Gypsy and Traveller groups#Indigenous Highland Travellers|Scottish Travellers]]<ref>"Pearlers were mostly Highland traveling people..." Finlay, Victoria. Jewels: A Secret History (Kindle Location 1296). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</ref> who found pearls varied from river to river with the [[River Oykel]] in the Highlands being noted for the finest rose-pink pearls.<ref>"Pearls from the Oykel River, northwest of Inverness, for example, are a sweet rose pink and have always been the most valuable." Finlay, Victoria. Jewels: A Secret History (Kindle Location 1341). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</ref> There are two firms in Scotland that are licensed to sell pre-1998 freshwater pearls.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scottish Freshwater River Pearl Jewellery|url=https://www.cairncrossofperth.co.uk/blogs/news/scottish-freshwater-river-pearl-jewellery|access-date=2023-02-11|website=A. & G. Cairncross Limited|language=en}}</ref>

===Pearl farming===
[[File:Pearl Oysters.jpg|thumb|A pearl being extracted from an akoya pearl oyster.]]
{{see also|Oyster farming}}
Today, the cultured pearls on the market can be divided into two categories. The first category covers the beaded cultured pearls, including akoya, South Sea, and Tahiti. These pearls are gonad grown, and usually one pearl is grown at a time. This limits the number of pearls at a harvest period. The pearls are usually harvested after one year for akoya, 2–4 years for Tahitian and South Sea, and 2–7 years for freshwater. This perliculture process was first developed by the British biologist [[William Saville-Kent]] who passed the information along to Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa from [[Japan]].
The second category includes the non-beaded freshwater cultured pearls, like the Biwa or Chinese pearls. As they grow in the mantle, where up to 25 grafts can be implanted on each wing, these pearls are much more frequent and saturate the market completely. An impressive improvement in quality has taken place over ten years when the former rice-grain-shaped pebbles are compared with the near round pearls of today. Later, large, near-perfect round bead nucleated pearls up to 15mm in diameter have been produced with metallic luster.

The nucleus bead in a beaded cultured pearl is generally a polished sphere made from freshwater [[mussel]] shell. Along with a small piece of mantle tissue from another mollusk (donor shell) to catalyze the pearl sac, it is surgically implanted into the gonad (reproductive organ) of a saltwater mollusk. In freshwater perliculture, only the piece of tissue is used in most cases and is inserted into the fleshy mantle of the host mussel. South Sea and Tahitian pearl oysters, also known as ''Pinctada maxima'' and ''Pinctada margaritifera'', which survive the subsequent surgery to remove the finished pearl, are often implanted with a new, larger beads as part of the same procedure and then returned to the water for another 2–3 years of growth.

Despite the common misperception, [[Mikimoto Kōkichi|Mikimoto]] did not invent pearl culture. The accepted process of pearl culture was developed by the British Biologist [[William Saville-Kent]] in Australia and brought to Japan by Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise. Nishikawa was granted the patent in 1916 and married the daughter of Mikimoto. Mikimoto was able to use Nishikawa's technology. After the patent was granted in 1916, the technology was immediately commercially applied to akoya pearl oysters in Japan in 1916. Mise's brother was the first to produce a commercial crop of pearls in the akoya oyster. Mitsubishi's Baron Iwasaki immediately applied the technology to the South Sea pearl oyster in 1917 in the Philippines and later in Buton and Palau. Mitsubishi was the first to produce a cultured South Sea pearl&nbsp;– although it was not until 1928 that the first small commercial crop of pearls was successfully produced.

The original Japanese cultured pearls, known as akoya pearls, are produced by a species of small pearl oyster, ''Pinctada fucata martensii'', which is no bigger than {{convert|6|to|8|cm|abbr=on}} in size, hence akoya pearls larger than 10&nbsp;mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. Today, a hybrid mollusk is used in both Japan and China in the production of akoya pearls.

Cultured Pearls were sold in cans for the export market. These were packed in Japan by the I.C.P. Canning Factory (International Pearl Company L.T.D.) in Nagasaki Pref. Japan.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}