Eating seafood and finding pearls at sky-high prices?! Do I still have a chance?

From time to time, we see in the news that people have eaten pearls in seafood such as mussels and oysters. There are even people who have eaten nearly a million-dollar Melo pearls from coconut shells! It turns out that eating a meal can really make you a millionaire?! To understand how to get rich by eating seafood (bushi), we need to first look at how pearls are formed.

How are pearls formed?

Simply put, there is a mantle inside the shells of clams and shellfish. When small sand or small parasites come in, the clams and shellfish will secrete nacre, wrapping them layer by layer, forming pearls over time.

From a chemist's point of view, the main components of pearls are calcium carbonate and a small amount of impurities such as organic matter and water . Calcium carbonate is white, so the color of pearls is mainly white. Impurities will affect the color of pearls, making them appear in a variety of colors such as gold, purple, pink, and black.

Some pearls don't play by the rules. Image source: wikipedia

Of course, the color can be more abundant by using the power of chemistry, such as using bleach to whiten, remove dark spots, and increase luster. It can also be artificially dyed, such as using nitrate solution to dye black pearls.

From a physicist's perspective, pearls are mainly spherical, with a pearly luster and a dense and delicate texture. The shape of pearls is related to the shape and growth of the nucleus inside. Some grow layer by layer around the sand, while others grow layer by layer on the basis of artificially implanted nuclei, so all the pearls formed are spherical.

There are also non-standard pearls such as ring-shaped pearls. Source: Wikipedia

In fact, during the pearl cultivation process, Keshi pearls without nuclei and irregular shapes are occasionally formed with rich colors and strong luster.

Irregularly shaped Kexu pearls Source: Wikipedia

What’s even more peculiar is that if part of the pearl is placed in a shell for cultivation, hemispherical, teardrop-shaped, or heart-shaped Mabe pearls will form! As early as the 13th century, the ancient Chinese had already cultivated unusual-shaped Buddha pearls by placing small Buddha statues in shells .

Buddha statue pearl source: wikipedia

Many people like big pearls. The size of pearls is mainly related to the mother oyster, temperature, water quality, and growth cycle . The larger the mother oyster, the larger the pearls it produces; the higher the sea water temperature, the faster the mother oyster's metabolism, and the larger the pearls produced; the better the water quality, the more plankton there are, the mother oyster has sufficient food, and the larger the pearls produced; the longer the growth cycle, the larger the pearls produced.

Let's classify pearls

There are " natural pearls " collected directly from wild shellfish and clams, and there are also "pearls" formed by artificially placing bead nuclei and small pieces of mantle into the bodies of shellfish and clams.

There are " freshwater pearls " formed in the bodies of clams such as the toothless clams, the pleated crown clams, and the triangular fan clams that live in fresh water. Natural freshwater pearls are widely distributed in rivers in Europe, America, East Asia, and the Middle East, and are more common in rivers in Tennessee, USA.

There are also " seawater pearls " formed in shellfish such as white-lipped oysters, black-lipped oysters, Pinctada martensii, and penguin oysters that live in seawater. Penguin oyster pearls have a metallic luster and rich halos. Natural seawater pearls are only distributed in the Persian Gulf in the Middle East, the Gulf of Mannar in South Asia, the Gulf of Mexico in North America, the Beibu Gulf in China, and islands such as Hawaii and Tahiti. The Persian Gulf is the most famous.

There are " nucleus-free pearls " formed by natural or artificial implantation of small pieces of mantle, which are smaller in size, about a few millimeters; there are also larger " nucleus-containing pearls " formed by artificial implantation of pearl nuclei, which are larger in size, about ten millimeters.

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, wearing pearls Source: Wikipedia

There are " free pearls " that are completely separated from the shells, and there are " attached pearls " that are attached to the shells.

In some caves, there are round stones like pearls, which are also formed by the growth of calcium carbonate around sand grains. However, there is no life involved in this process. It is similar to the growth of stalactites, which are just the product of minerals crystallizing from solutions . Many such cave "pearls" can be seen in the karst caves in Yunnan and Guizhou in China.

Cave "pearls", a substitute? Image source: Wikipedia

What do the finest pearls look like?

What do the finest pearls look like? Where can you find these beautiful pearls?

Natural pearls from the Persian Gulf have been discovered and collected by people since 2,000 years ago, accounting for more than half of the natural pearl sales center in Paris. They are white or milky white in color, with strong luster, large grains and excellent quality, especially the pearls near Bahrain Island. The natural pearls produced by the Pinctada martensii in Hepu, Guangxi, China, are round and shiny, with large grains. They can be found in everything from royal tribute to the best products on the Silk Road.

The production of pearls is not exclusive to bivalve clams and shellfish. Some snails and abalones from the gastropod class can also form pearl-like substances.

Yes, you may find pearls when eating abalone (although the probability is extremely small 🤫) Image source: gia.edu

For example, there is a kind of queen conch in the coastal areas of California, Florida and the West Indies in America. Among the queen conch pearls produced, on average only 1 high-quality pearl will appear in 20,000. From the conch to the pearl, everything is Barbie pink, and you can see beautiful textures like flames!

Queen Phoenix Conch Source: stromboidea

Pearls from the Queen Conch. Source: conchpearls

There is a kind of coconut shell in the coastal areas from Southeast Asia to Australia. It produces Melo pearls that can grow to the size of golf balls! From the shell to the pearls, they are all papaya orange, and the textures are like flames or stars.

Papaya orange coconut spiral and Melo pearls Source: Wikipedia

In addition, there are the king of red spiral pearls produced in the waters near the United States, the horn red spiral pearls, spindle pearls, abalone pearls, etc. produced in the western Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.

The three on the right are abalone pearls. Can you recognize them as pearls? Image source: wikipedia

In addition to these precious natural pearls, there are many beautiful cultured pearls. Freshwater cultured pearls from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, seawater cultured pearls from the Seto Inland Sea in Japan, black pearls from Tahiti in Polynesia, and golden pearls from the South Pacific. With large production and low prices, cultured pearls have occupied most of the pearl market.

Tahitian black pearls Source: Wikipedia

After introducing the pearls above, you may have discovered that the types of seafood we usually eat are not the same as the types of seafood that produce pearls. Even if the types are the same, there are very few pearls in them. The probability of eating pearls from seafood is comparable to winning the lottery! Sometimes, even if you eat it, you can't recognize it as a pearl (spreading your hands).

How to identify real and fake pearls?

Guess if this is true or not? Image source: A video on YouTube with over 10 million views

After talking about real pearls, let's take a look at fake pearls. To distinguish real and fake pearls, we must first know how to imitate pearls. Common pearl imitations are made of glass, plastic, shells and other materials.

Previously, the pearls worn by Xiang Tai were suspected to be real pearls, but they were actually just clothing accessories; the picture is from the Internet.

Injecting glue or wax into hollow glass or plastic to increase weight, and coating the surface with pearl essence extracted from herring scales, this is glass/plastic imitation pearls . This kind of imitation pearls are dull in color, light in feel, easy to fall off, and even traces of the mold left on the pearls can be seen.

Grind the shell into a ball and apply pearl essence to it, and it will be a shell imitation pearl . The shell is also composed of calcium carbonate, and it is extremely difficult to distinguish it from natural pearls in terms of density and appearance.

In addition to applying pearl essence on the surface, you can also cover the surface with a layer of polymer film, which looks like pearls and is called coated pearls. This film may also fall off over time, especially in the perforated areas.

You tell me whether they are real or fake. Image source: YouTube

How can we identify so many imitation pearls? There are two main identification methods: destructive and non-destructive.

Non-destructive identification methods include:

① Comparing the feel, imitation pearls feel warmer.

② Observe with a magnifying glass, the imitation pearl does not have the layered calcium carbonate crystal structure, but only has very monotonous small pits like the surface of an egg.

③ The color, shape and luster of imitation pearls are more monotonous.

④ Check whether there is a coating layer on the surface by punching.

Destructive identification methods include:

① Use a knife to scrape the surface of the pearl to see if the color and texture change.

② Soak in acetone liquid to see if the luster disappears. If it does not change, it is a real pearl. But who would be willing to use this method?

Planning and production

Source: Bowuzai (ID: bowuzai)

Author: Yang Shuaibin

Original editor | Weimo

Editor: Wang Mengru