[GemGeek]

Originally Posted by barbie biggs

What more??? I crave them in my sleep.
barbie

Is that why I'm so tired all the time?

[Ragnorak]

Originally Posted by smetzler

Do you still spend time in the Cooks?

I haven't worked in the Pacific for nearly 10 years now.

We'll be visiting for few days in early October.

If this is your first visit then I'm sure you'll enjoy Rarotonga.

I have no doubt that capitalization requirements would be grossly underestimated.

Which is what's scary. There'll be many pie in the sky proposals that will get serious consideration and end in failure. Which seems to be typical.

These proposals seem to be getting thrown together by people with little or no idea of what to expect. I mean who would seriously consider using two to three year old oysters for mabe? These shell would be in their prime to be seeded for rounds.

[WorldFishSolomon]

Another Micronesian country that is trying to learn from others' mistakes is Solomon Islands. There, pearl farming has been experimental only to date and the Government is working to encourage investment but to put un place sensible policy and regulation. Solomon Islands has both P. maxima and P. margaritifera. Anybody interested in learning more about pearl farming opportunities there can email worldfish-solomon@cgiar.org.

[smetzler]

Re Solomon Islands, the post is welcome. The Cook Islands thread referenced in Post #1 briefly discussed seeking a transitional style between French Polynesia and Australia, taking inspiration from the natural golden poe pipi as a national characteristic. But the geography and species mix in the Solomons appears to be precisely this concept.

Political and civil stability issues need to be updated. Also, it would be great to see photos of some Solomon pearls of recent harvest to get an idea of what's going on.

[Ragnorak]

News is still thin on the ground but it looks like one atoll has gotten their act together, put together a plan and started to act on it. It actually sounds like they might succeed.

I can only hope they do better than Nukuoro, which was off to a promising start.

Nukuoro's First Pearl Sale In FSM

But then;

Governor calls for audit of Nukuoro government

Never found out how it ended but I do hear that Mr. Steves is still involved with the farm in some capacity.

[smetzler]

Thanks for the perspective, let's hope the situation stabilizes so we can look forward to more of those blue/gold pearls from Post #1.

[Ragnorak]

I'm not sure if the situation on Nukuoro with regards to the farm increasing production will change any time soon.

Some background information for those who maybe interested.

The College of Micronesia Land Grant Program (based in Pohnpei) is separate from the Nukuoro Black Pearl Project mentioned in the article I posted a link to.

It could be said the the community based farm on Nukuoro atoll was / is the first commercial farm in Micronesia.

Originally the Land Grant Program did supply the Nukuoro farm with spat, technical information / assistance and a seeder.

For reasons best known to themselves the "community" decided that they could go it alone and sought assistance from other sources. Let's just leave it at that.

In my opinion when taken together with the other issues, it didn't exactly help things along.

Far be it for me to be smug and I'm not trying to be but the whole situation is something that happens all too often.

[smetzler]

Your post caused me to seek info and images on Nokuoro, and I was taken with the perfection of the atoll, almost completely closed. Don't see a landing strip anywhere—how does one get there?

[nlerner]

Originally Posted by smetzler

how does one get there?

Swimming?

[Ragnorak]

You could swim if you wanted to.

All access is by boat from Pohnpei. Since it's the closest major population centre. If memory serves it's a day and a half to two days via the cargo boat.

But there in lies another problem. Apparently one of the two cargo boats, the Micro Glory, spends more time tied alongside the wharf in Kolonia than it does running cargo.

I've seen the old rust bucket and it doesn't look pretty. There's no money that can be found to replace it's aging and often broken main engine.

Toshiuki Rudolph who was the chief magistrate at the time the farm was starting out would use one of the navy's patrol boats to deliever freight on their partol runs.

[pearlescence]

These are stunning pearls. What sizes are the ones in the group photo and to where have they been sold? Are there any available, baroques etc? Prices?
cheers

[smetzler]

Those pictures will do nothing to diminish interest in this thread! Are they from Nukuoro?

[Ragnorak]

All of the pearls in the photos are from the Land Grant Program.

The top left hand photo I have no details on.

The top right hand photo is another view of some of the jewllery from the first post in this thread.

The bottom left hand photo is of pearls that have been left to grow out over 24 rather than 18 months.

I don't have any information on sizes.

I have to emphasise that these pearls are the cream of the crop. They haven't been put up for sale as far as I know since they are part of the research program and there have been reservations about putting them up for sale.

[pearlescence]

Selling them would be a good way to fund the research! The 24 months is good news, that they are being left in so long with presumably stonking nacre. If they are all first grafts from same size nacre there appears to be a huge variation in size.
They are beautiful pearls

[Ragnorak]

Originally Posted by pearlescence

Selling them would be a good way to fund the research!

The concern is that there have been quite a few experiments conducted by the program and they don't necessarily want those pearls to end up on the market.

For example they have experimented with different types and grades of nuclei. A concern that was raised with me was what if a pearl cracks while it's being drilled because of a flaw in the nucleus?

The 24 months is good news, that they are being left in so long with presumably stonking nacre.

Though 24 months may make the whole venture less economically viable. What has to be considered at the moment (with black pearl prices being what they are) is that what we'd call good quality saleable pearls are in the minority.

If they are all first grafts from same size nacre there appears to be a huge variation in size.

That's the black lip pearl oyster for you. It's surprising the different sized nuclei you can jam into the things.

They are beautiful pearls

I'm glad you think so. Sounds like there could be some potential here.