Akoya pearls are renowned the world over for their lustre, perfect shape and brilliance. However few admirers of the classic pearl would believe that the very best and biggest akoya pearls are grown here in Australia - well in Queensland’s Hervey Bay to be exact.
Meet Dave Williams, commercial fisherman turned pearl farmer - the man behind this extra ordinary project aiming to grow and export the world’s biggest and best pearls. After years of fishing the Pacific and Southern Ocean for Patagonian Tooth Fish, Dave decided to obtain a lease near Mud Island in Moreton Bay to grow oysters with the idea of cultivating Akoya pearls.
It wasn’t long before Dave decided the native akoya oysters liked warmer water so in an exercise that has taken some five years, cost millions of dollars and miles and miles and miles of red tape, the father of Queensland pearl industry is now firmly established in Hervey Bay.
So why pearls, “Well”, says Dave, “After having been a fisherman working the notorious Southern Ocean, anyone with romantic notions of life at sea or even sailing there is mad!!”
His 200 hectare oyster farm is now a world’s best practice operation. Says Dave,”It took two and a half years to get a permit for the farm. We had to deal with 12 different government departments, both State and Federal, to finally get the green light. It was difficult to overcome the emotive objections to the oyster farm. We operate on an environmental code of practice which is the most stringent in the world and we were able to demonstrate the environmental benefits of the oyster farm in actually creating a sustainable environment. I have been lucky to have Queensland State DPI and Fisheries support and assistance to increase production, develop markets and strengthen my business adapability. With this help we are producing new jobs and skills in Regional Australia."
There is no doubt Dave Williams is a concerned and committed environmentalist. “I just love being out on the farm. There is an abundance of bait fish and bird life and as oysters are bio mediators, they actually filter the water, making it cleaner,” he adds.
In recognition of the value of the enterprise in developing a sustainable regional export industry, Dave received a Federal Government grant under the Sustainable Regions Program two and a half years ago which allowed him to make substantial advances in the production of these world class oysters.
Although it is early days in terms of developing sufficient output to sustain a domestic and export market, Dave has already lifted production from 5,000 to 20,000 pearls per year with the eventual aim of being able to produce up to 40,000 pearls per year.
Traditionally the Japanese have dominated the production of akoya pearls but because of the problems with pollution and disease, their production is dropping annually as is the quality of the Japanese pearl.
Because the warm
Hervey Bay waters are a natural environment to the production of the new species of akoya pearl oyster, the specific techniques and new management practices adopted at the farm now mean that this fledgling Queensland operation has the capacity to produce the best and biggest akoya pearls in the world.
“We are consistently producing pearls of 10 mm in diameter and our aim is to produce pearls up to 10 to 12 mm which would be the largest of their type in the world,” says Dave. Currently, three different types of oysters are used in the production of these world class pearls – the newly discovered Hervey Bay akoya, the
Pinctada maxima or South Sea pearl oyster and the akoya.
The process of cultivating a native oyster and actually producing an akoya pearl is quite complex. Firstly, brood stock must be selected from native species. Oysters spawn twice yearly and before spawning must be sorted into male and female oysters. The water temperate in the holding ponds is then increased to facilitate spawning. Water from both male and female ponds are mixed together and as a result, fertilisation occurs.
Once the oysters have reached between 2 - 4 mm in size and have developed from free swimming to attachment stage, they are collected in fine mesh bags and taken to the oyster farm. They are then placed in racks and suspended on lines in up to five metres of water.
In two years, the shell must have grown to around 60 grams in size. The oysters are then removed and placed in a conditioning box to weaken them thus making it possible to seed.
Seeding is a process which takes place in late winter, early spring. Dave’s partner Denise was specially trained in Japan to undertake the delicate operation of making an incision in the reproductive sack of the oyster and inserting a nuclei - an 8 mm to 10 mm perfectly round seed made from Mississippi mussel shell and a small piece of selected graft tissue from the mantle of another oyster. A good seeder can do 600 oysters per day and the entire seeding operation takes place each month all year round.
In four week after the seeding takes places, a pearly sac is formed around the nuclei and the oyster commences layering the seed with nacre. The uniqueness of the pristine Hervey Bay environment means that Dave Williams has been able to cultivate pearls in gold, green and silver with outstanding lustre.
So why cultivate pearls? “Wild oysters yield about one pearl per million shells. It would take three tonnes of natural oysters to yield just four or five pearls,” says Dave.
He adds, “It takes about a year for the pearl to develop a 10 mm pearl after seeding with a 1 mm cover but we like to keep the seeded oysters for two years before harvest. We only seed with one big nuclei unlike in Japan where they seed with two smaller nuclei. We are going to try to reseed after one year from operation with the bigger shell to push out bigger akoya pearl.”
So where do these world-class and highly-sought pearls go when they leave the farm? “These pearls are very special and still expensive.” says Dave. “Currently, our focus is on export. Our pearls are in great demand in Asia. Most of our crop currently is exported to fashion jewellers in Japan. We have only one retail outlet in Australia, where these fabulous pearls can be obtained, and that is
Haigh’s Jewellers at Hervey Bay. We also have started a pearl farm tour which sells direct to the public which has become very popular.”
Steve and Debbie Haigh have worked with Dave Williams throughout the development stages and now that production is increasing, Steve is confident these huge, home-grown pearls will be in great demand.
Says Steve Haigh, “Most pearls produced elsewhere are bleached and color treated. Hervey Bay pearls, marketed as Fraser Island Pearls, have natural thick nacre and naturally high lustre, which requires us to do nothing more than mount them.”
Pearls are graded by shape, size, lustre, orient or hue and weight. Pearls are measured in half-millimetre increments, in other words 9.5 - 10 mm and so on.
Pearls with pink tints are the most highly sought while pearls with a gold tint are gaining in popularity. The Haighs have set the Fraser Island Pearls with sapphires and diamonds to achieve some spectacular pieces.
To learn more about these pearls and what Steve Haigh describes as the “Cream of the Crop,” contact Haighs Jewellers on 07 4128 3326 or visit their website
http://www.haighsjewellers.com.au/
More promising news from last week’s Shima Shokai South Sea pearl auction in Kobe; the 42nd annual auction trumped the market-depressed numbers of 2009 with ¥701.64 million versus a dismal ¥236.1 million.
Posts
