Does Harvesting a Pearl Kill the Oyster?

Also, how to identify a fake pearl, and look real cool doing so

Hate to break it to ya, buddy, but if it’s on a plate with lemon, that oyster probably ain’t gonna make it. Photo by Tommaso Cantelli on Unsplash

Pearls are probably one of my favorite bits of jewelry. Not because of their shiny iridescence, but because, unlike most gemstones, they are produced by living creatures. You can’t grow a diamond in a living being, but you can make a pearl.

There’s a lot of fascinating biology that is involved in the production of pearls, and it’s incredible to see how we have adapted that biology to produce pearls for us to have as shiny baubles.

But how does it work?

• How long does it take to grow a pearl?
• Does harvesting the pearl kill the oyster?
• What’s the difference between real and synthetic pearls? How can we tell them apart?
• How destructive is pearl farming to the environment?

For the next few minutes, let’s crack open a bivalve and take a look inside, to learn about the coolest jewelry accent that isn’t just some boring old hunk of rock.

How do pearls form, and why?

Most of us know that pearls come from oysters, those shelled mollusks of the sea. (Pedantically, this isn’t quite true; the oysters we eat can create pearls, but most…