Buying Pinctada Margaratifera Oysters?

[sarula]

I had recently learned about tahitian pearls and wanted to know if anyone knew of a way I could buy the oyster not open yet. My friend is a big time admirer,and I wish to purchase one for her as a gift. I'm in LasVegas Nv and I'm having trouble getting one if anyone might have some info please let me know. Thanks

[jshepherd]

Are you looking for a live oyster? This would be difficult to do as they are very delicate creatures and do not easily handle transportation. They are collected as spat at farms and grown into maturity on location.
You are not looking for that "pearl in an oyster" thing, are you? I do not know of a company that does this with Tahitian pearls as it would be simply too expensive. And the process with which they do it with kills the oyster anyway - they place a whole pearl in the oyster, place the oyster into a formaldehyde solution so it closes (and dies) then sell them in little shops. Big surprise that every oyster has a pearl - eh? What irks me is that every sales person has been trained to lie to the unsuspecting tourist.

[sarula]

Thanks for the info, what kills me is I know ur right ,but yes I was looking for a live one to grow of my own whether it be a baby or a grown one.