Environmental Impact of the Ever-Growing Pearl Farming Industry

Environmental Impact of the Ever-Growing Pearl Farming Industry

Pearls are probably the only sustainable gem found on the earth. The popularity of pearl ornaments especially mikimoto pearl necklace in particular, has given to doubts regarding the impact of intensive pearl farming across the world. But statistics and data gained from the study of the pearl industry show that pearl farming indeed has a very positive impact on the global environment. Some of the main reasons for this are:

  • Necessity of clean water

In order to be able to produce the best quality of pearls, an oyster has to be provided with plenty of clean and unpolluted water with plenty of minerals and oxygen present in it. Thus in order to ensure this, it becomes imperative to keep the marine environment free from pollution.

  • Water purification

The availability of clean water for oysters and mussels is also counter-productive. This is because each pearl mussel has been known to filter around 104litres of marine water in about 24hours in their search for that impurity which will facilitate the formation of pearl.

  • Oyster food

Planktons, by-products of the fish and the coral reef ecosystem etc., form food for the oysters. Hence it becomes important for pearl farmers to ensure a healthy living ecosystem around their farms. Consequently many of them have banned fishing and in the areas immediately surrounding their farms and also take great care to ensure that a healthy coral reef thrives in the region.

  • Healthy farming practices

With people becoming aware of the after-effects of a negative impact on the environment, most pearl farmers have started migrating towards healthy pearls farming practices. Thus a wide variety of marine organisms now thrive in the areas surrounding the pearl farms and thus have given rise to a bio-diversity which would otherwise have perished.

Mussels and oysters make for a sustainable source of proteins for the humans. They also leave no carbon footprint behind and are known to absorb carbon dioxide, phosphorous and nitrogen from their environment thereby preventing marine waters from becoming toxic.

There is thus no doubt that every pearl which is added to a Mikimoto pearl necklace actually goes through a cycle of cleaning the ocean water and increasing the biodiversity in the region. Pearl production is thus not only environment friendly; it also promotes the growth of good environment.

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