Why South Sea and Black Tahitian “keshi” pearls are becoming scarcer ?
“Keshi” pearls and jewelry pieces turned out of them, were once very popular and could be purchased at a bargain. However, these pearls are now becoming rarer and rarer. This is mainly because pearl culturists of the South Sea pearl farms such as in Australia, Philippines and Indonesia, and the Tahitian pearl farms of the South Pacific, have now resorted to X-raying the seeded pearl oysters to make sure that the implanted bead nuclei have not been rejected. If the nucleus has been rejected, the oyster is again opened up and re-nucleated, before a keshi pearl is formed. A second attempt in nucleating an oyster is usually successful. In the case of South Sea pearl oysters and Black Tahitian pearl oysters, attempting a second nucleation is advantageous given the long time required for pearl formation which varies from 2 to 4 years, and the much higher prices realized for the bead nucleated cultured pearls than “keshi” pearls. Thus South Sea and Black Tahitian “keshi” pearls are now becomi
