Wild v. Hatchery

[Orient]

Dear PG members,

This query is addressed to members of the forum who have recent (1 year or so) experience with South Sea pearl culturing farms. Please would you let me know if the mollusks used to produce the cultured pearls are:

1) Entirely wild (recovered from oyster beds)?
2) Hatchery reared?
3) A mixture of the two?

I belive most of the world uses hatchery reared and I know that in Vietnam where I just returned from they are hatchery reared, but it got me wondering about farms in Australia, Philippines etc...

Any accurate, first-hand personal experiences (feedback) would be welcomed. Thank you in advance.

[jshepherd]

Australia is a mixture of the two. In NT i believe it is 100% hatchery. In WA it's about 50/50.

[Orient]

Thank you for the only reply Jeremy. I was waiting to see if anyone else had first hand information, but obviously not. Very interesting, as I believe it wasn't that long ago
(1990's) that the mollusks were 100% wild. How times change.