Yet the oyster deaths continued long after the ... author of a book on pearls (see History of Pearls and Culture of Freshwater Pearls). "I would never attribute it to an unidentified mystery ...

Natural freshwater pearls occur in mussels for the same reason that saltwater pearls occur in oysters. Foreign material, usually a sharp object or parasite, enters a mussel and cannot be expelled.

Only oysters of the Ostreidae family can make pearls, but many other types of mollusks can produce these gems, such as abalone and paua (New Zealand abalone), conchs, freshwater mussels ...

The Pinctada maxima oyster can take up to five years to produce a single South Sea pearl, whereas more common freshwater oysters can take as little as three months and create dozens of pearls.

Simply sign up to the Sustainability myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. Produced by oysters in oceans or mussels in rivers, pearls have been coveted by humans since the Bronze Age.

Pearls are made by marine oysters and freshwater mussels as a natural defence against an irritant such as a parasite entering their shell or damage to their fragile body. The oyster or mussel slowly ...

Oysters are used to make beer In Victorian ... In fact, Julius Caesar's desire to get his hands on our freshwater pearls is thought to have been his motivation behind invading the British Isles.

The collapse of Florida’s oyster reefs serves as a stark reminder of the interconnected challenges we face: freshwater mismanagement, habitat destruction and economic development at odds with ...

The luxury jeweler’s third launch of the collaborative collection introduces the darker and rarer Tahitian pearl alongside a ...