Pearl Culture

India is endowed with a Pearl oyster resource which has been exploited for the natural pearls from time immemorial and in the historical past pearl have been one of the precious objects along with spices.

"Thoothukudi" and Jam Nagar" are the well known haunts of this resource and pearl fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar and Gulf of Kutch respectively.

The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) started an experimental project in pearl culture in 1972 at Thoothukudi with a field laboratory at Veppalodai .

 Breakthrough  

•  An early breakthrough was achieved and the fist spherical cultured pearl was produced on 25th July 1973 at, CMFRI, Thoothukudi, heralding the development of pearl culture technology in india .

  Commercial

• The developments in pearl culture research have led to the establishment of a commercial pearl culture project in the country.  The Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation Ltd and Southern Petro Chemical Industries Corporation Ltd.,  started a joint venture project in 1983 with a collection base at Thoothukudi, farm at Kurusadai and surgery at mandapam .

Early attempts in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat:

           Late James Hornell who took the responsibility of investigating the prospects of the Gulf of Mannar pearl fisheries along the Indian as well as Ceylon coasts in the nearly part of the present century for the purpose of improving the pearl oyster resources and conditions of fishing grounds came to the conclusion that  "the only economically sound way of making the Indian and Ceylon pearl fisheries permanently and regularly remunerative is to concentrate upon the inducement of pearls by artificial means in comparatively limited numbers of cultivated pearl oysters..."

             Thus in 1938, experiments on pearl culture is started at Krusadai island at the head of the gulf of Mannar.

               Similar attempt have been made near Sikka in Gujarat.

Pearl Oyster resources of India:

                Hornell (1922) gives the history of the pearl fisheries of the Gulf of Mannar.  During the 16th Century, the history of pearl fisheries is intricately connectd on the one hand with the ruling power like the Nayakas of Madura, Nawab of Carnatic and the portuguese and on the other hand with the "Paravars" who traditionally exploited the fisheries....

                 The pearl oysters are always found attached to some hard substratum such as rocks, dead coral outcrops or sand grit covered with marine organisms.  The are of occurrence of pearl oysters are known as pearl banks or "Parrs".  Hornell divided these Paars into three divisions:

                                     1. Northern (Kilakarai)

                                     2. Central (Thoothukkudi)

                                     3. Southern (Kanyakumari)

of these, the central division is the most productive one in view of the fact the out of the 40 fisheries that had taken place between 1663 and 1961, 39 fisheries had been in the paars located in this division...