Pearls and the environment

Being an organic product of living animals, pearl farming is intrinsically linked to the environment. In our opinion this gives us an ethical responsibility to ensure that we look after the very environment that produces them, allowing their continued growth whilst benefiting the wider world in general. In our opinion there are two main environmental issues to consider, firstly, the external environmental impacts which affect pearl farming, and secondly, the impacts that pearl farming can have on the environment.

How our impact on the environment affects pearl farming

The first of these is the well publicised impact that human influences have had on pearl production. Many fertile pearling grounds have now been rendered barren by pollution that has entered the freshwater and saltwater systems prohibiting any mollusk growth. For example, Lake Biwa in Japan where farms used to produce very high quality freshwater pearls is now unable to sustain mollusk growth due to chemical pollution from the surrounding towns and industry. A combination of pollution and climate change is now affecting the seas that house saltwater pearl farms from Polynesia to Australia. Rising sea levels and water temperatures are inhibiting pearl growth, diminishing pearl quality and even covering islands inhabited by the pearl farm workers, resulting in their abandonment. They also suffer from indiscriminate farming methods whereby some fisherman use dynamite and cyanide to kill and catch fish causing untold damage to the environment and any potential pearl farming.

Our opinion, which is shared by a number of people within the industry, is that climate change is the greatest threat to pearl farming. If we don’t make significant efforts to curb the rising water temperatures and rising sea levels, pearl farming will be one of the first affected and could die off completely. This has inspired us to make every effort to minimise our impact on the environment and publicise this issue because we believe that the more people who understand the effects of climate change, the more likely we are to get together and fix the problem.

This led us to thinking, what better way to spread the word about the environment and pearl farming than to actually do something about it? We therefore fund projects that offset the carbon footprint of every one of our pearls to make them carbon neutral. These projects include things such as planting trees which naturally absorb CO2 as well as investing into sustainable energy research and more efficient energy production. We know that this won’t cure climate change but hope that it will reflect on its importance and show that people do care enough to support it which in turn will get other people to do the same.

How Pearl farming affects the environment

The second environmental issue that we recognise within the pearl industry is the impact we can have on the environment. We’ve already outlined how saltwater cultured pearl farming is great for the environment by protecting the natural biodiversity and natural state of their surrounding areas. However we’ve heard that, due to the robust nature of freshwater mussels, over fertilisation and pesticide use can upset the natural balance downstream from freshwater pearl farms. We don’t know of any research that has conclusively proven this theory but have heard that this is causing eutropification. Eutropification is basically when algae grows to such an extent downstream from this treatment that it completely fills the lakes and streams, it then dies, sinks to the bottom and decomposes sucking up all available oxygen and killing everything else in the water. This is obviously damaging to the environment and so we’re making significant efforts to find out what is actually happening so that if there is a problem, it can be fixed. We do know that the Chinese government (China is where the vast majority of freshwater pearls are farmed) is trying to prevent these negative effects by inhibiting over farming but we are trying to do our bit to help ensure freshwater pearl farming is sustainable by rallying groups such as the Marine Stewardship Council, World Wildlife Fund and Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices. Some people have said that we should no longer sell freshwater pearls due to this uncertainty. However we believe that ignoring the problem will not fix it and so rather than running away, we are championing research into the exact effects of the practices, lobbying the groups that can make a difference and spreading the word in the hope that this will have a far more positive impact on the problem in the long run.

These are all complex, sensitive issues that no-one could fix alone, but we hope that by talking about them with the people who can make a difference we can help encourage the changes that need to be made in order to help improve these problems for all concerned. We’re obviously more than happy to discuss these issues and hear other peoples points of view so if you have any thoughts on this please, please get in touch; we’ve listed the different ways to contact us just a bit further down.

Lastly, to put these environmental issues in perspective, diamonds need destructive mining processes in order to be found, they’re then cut into complex shapes before they’re added to jewellery. Gold also has to be mined, then treated with very corrosive chemicals that, when leaked from the mines, poison the surrounding environment, killing everything close to it. Cultured pearls in the other hand are made by living things without the need for mining or any treatment, other than a quick polish, as they come out of the mollusk as beautiful as you see them in jewellery. Cultured pearls are therefore the least intrusive to the environment of any gem and most naturally beautiful. Here are a couple of pictures of pearl farms, as you can see the surrounding area is beautifully looked after and appears untouched.

So you can see that cultured pearls are a beautiful, sustainable product of pearl farms that help protect the natural surroundings in which they’re grown. We hope that this information about pearls has been helpful, if you have any questions or comments on any of it pop us an email, register to our updates or just give us a ring, we’d love to hear from you.

Cultured Pearl Farms

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