| Hi,
The University of Texas was experimenting with culturing akoya-type pearls and freshwater pearls from the Tampico pearly mussel. However, I have not heard anything from that project in years and Leonhard DiMichele has not answered my e-mails. Given the pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, I doubt that much is going to come out it but you never know. There are some freshwater and marine pearl culturing operations going on in California but the only one that has so far made a commercial impact is the abalone mabé farm and that makes most of its money from selling the abalone meat and shells.
Zeide |