Dolphins Guarding Pearl Farms?

[Caitlin]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1617137.htm

Plan for dolphins to watch over pearl oyster farm
Port Stephens Pearls is in the process of engaging expert dolphin watchers to oversee its multi-million dollar pearl oyster farm.
The company received approval for its operation in August last year when the Land and Environment Court reversed a NSW Government decision to reject it.
The Government's refusal was based on several grounds, including concerns that dolphins could become entangled in the the oyster farm longlines.
Port Stephens Pearls' managing director, Ian Burt, says the company is taking several steps to address those concerns.
"We're investigating all the protocol we have to comply with, which is dolphin monitoring and seagrass monitoring and various other aspects of setting up the farm in a proper manner," he said.
"I'm negotiating with various bodies like Macquarie University ... for dolphin monitoring experts to finalise the project."

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin,

How did this article get its title? The body copy suggests that the farm is supposed to take care not to endanger dolphins rather than the other way around as the title suggests.

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

It is confusing. That is the entire article as I found it.

I wonder why the the gov't would disaprove and what do the long lines have to do with it? And the fear dolphins will entangle in them? Have they?

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Long lines

Long lines

If you want your pearls to be as round as possible and have decent nacre, you have to let your scallops crawl around a bit. In order to provide best mobility without losing them, the pearl farmers drill holes near the hinges and thread a long line through them. The lines are then attached to yet other lines that keep track of a string of scallops that were nucleated at the same time. Dolphins do like to snack on pearl scallops and they do tend to get entangled in the sturdy nylon lines and thus drown. Happens all the time in tuna fishing, too. Only there nobody checks for them and tries to help them out of the drag nets.

Zeide

 

[effisk]

I saw that news (I'm using Google Alerts) and found the title confusing too.
I did a little research and found this other article on the same topic:
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2004/s1071696.htm

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi,

I don't think there is much danger of entanglement for dolphins in akoya culture since the scallops (not oysters) are kept in cages hanging down from rafts. The real problem is the line cultivation (used for pinctada maxima culturing and even there not exclusively) where dolphins can actually get at the scallops and can get entangled in the lines. With the akoya culture system neither is the case. Making a stink about the raft culture system is about as sensible as hiding your car keys from humpback whales.

Zeide

 

[effisk]

...akoya culture since the scallops (not oysters)...

You're getting me confused.

I've always been told Akoya pearls are cultivated from the oyster species Pinctada fucata...

 

[Caitlin]

effisk
https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=482&page=2&highlight=scallops
post #'s 16 and 17

Pearl myth #2 exploded right here in the Pearl-Guide Forum.

Stay tuned folks, for more revelations to come. You will get te correct facts here.

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi,

Without dragging marine biologists up to post and explain the difference between oyster and scallop, maybe Antoinette Matlins can serve as enough of an authority. If you have The Pearl Book, the definitive buying guide in the paperback version of the third edition, you will find on page 25 in the penultimate paragraph this:

... While we refer to them as pearl producing oysters, this may really be a misnomer; oysters are an edible mollusc of the family ostreidae and most saltwater pearls are produced by non-edible molluscs akin to the scallop family. ...

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

In that same paragraph Matlins goes on to say that while she will continue to call them "oysters" in the book, don't be surprised if someday, everyone calls them "scallops".

Now I have seen enough of this erstwhile, completely independent*, pearl evaluator and iconoclast, the "Super-perforator" herself, lucky Zeide, to think that if she is using the term "scallop", its time has come. (*not affiliated or beholden to the admin of this forum)

Let the readers of this forum show their deepening understanding of pearls by using correct terms!

I am in the process of rewriting my articles on pearls to substitue scallops and mollusks for oysters.

 

[effisk]

Well, I finished reading Antoinette Matlins' book this morning. The word "oyster" is repeated often enough in the book to make me forget about that short paragraph on page 25.

My future date is right here on the forum and I was surprised despite the warning. I have got to go though that book again.

 

[effisk]

By the way, scallops are called "coquilles saint-jacques" in French. I come from a region where oysters are cheap and coquilles saint-jaques much more expensive...

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin,

Is that going to be a new forum title like "moderator" and "supermoderator"? Can I graduate from being ordinary "perforator" to "superperforator"? What do I have to do for that?

By the way, since all the dealers on this forum have links to their commercial sites in their signature, I decided to put in my own commercial. But I have to be upgraded to Superperforator status before that is properly funny.

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

OK I fixed it up above at least.
I have asked before for members to have the ability to play around with titles, but I haven't had an answer. I have used a couple of v-bulletins- like the one before this format, where you could have an avatar, change the titles and add stuff to the signature. I did note that too much stuff added in really increases the bandwidth.
I imagine too many people would probably not be serious enough either. I have a tendency to lapse into jokes and metaphors anyway.
How could anyone take me seriously if I put "Pearl Noodle" for my title. Yet, I would like that, both the title and for people to recognise you don't have to be an expert to help moderate! At best I am a pearl reporter, no where near an expert.