Pearl Diving

[Morg]

Hey sorry if I posted this up in the wrong section. This isn't really a 'goods wanted' type of question.

But I wondering how hard it is to go pearl diving? From some minor googling I found that the oysters usually are in +100ft deep waters and RARELY produce perfert pearls.

I was wondering how easy it is to find these oysters are to find. Also any locations that are best.

Thanks,
Morg

 

[Freediver81]

Hi Morg!

have you heard of pearl farms? Can be found in French Polynesia A.K.A Tahiti.

Said

 

[Morg]

Hi Morg!

have you heard of pearl farms? Can be found in French Polynesia A.K.A Tahiti.

Said

Yeah I believe that I seen a show on Discovery Channel about them. Very interesting stuff.

Then I was watching Pilot Guides and Ian was hanging around with a pearl diver and he said that this one big pearl was like worth $3,000 U.S!!!

I think it would be very neat to dive down and get one yourself. . I'm just thinking out-loud here about stuff to do later on in life

 

[Amphibious]

there is an operation in Bahrain that runs "Padi Pearl Diver" cert course.:head

it's pretty mickey mouse

 

[Morg]

there is an operation in Bahrain that runs "Padi Pearl Diver" cert course.:head

it's pretty mickey mouse

Padi... ah I wanted to freedive for em.

What do you mean by mickey mouse?

 

[Amphibious]

you can freedive, they say they are deep, but they are in 20-50ft of water :t

Mickey Mouse = Goofy, unproffesional, mildly entertaining..... also know as a "Gong Show"

 

[Morg]

you can freedive, they say they are deep, but they are in 20-50ft of water :t

Mickey Mouse = Goofy, unproffesional, mildly entertaining..... also know as a "Gong Show"

Ah.. rofl

Yeah I would like to do that some time. Just freedive and search around for some oysters with pearls.

Its definatly on my to-do list .

 

[island_sands]

Emirates Diving Association does pearl diving excursions.
www.emiratesdiving.com (but on scuba!) :rcard

Tahiti is part of French Polynesia (primarily the Society Islands) which is also Moorea and Bora Bora. FP are loads of different islands - geographically, Polynesia may be described as a triangle with its three corners at Hawai'i, New Zealand, and Easter Island.

The other main island groups located within the Polynesian triangle are Samoa, Tonga, and the various island chains that form the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. Rotuma, a dependency of Fiji, and Tuvalu, both outside this great triangle, are Polynesian. FP is not just limited to Tahiti, but the whole area.

As for pearl diving in that region... they have pearl farms rofl not sure how much fun that is rofl
see this webbie on Tahitian pearls
http://www.perlesdetahiti.net/

 

[Sergiu]

Hi Morg,

Just got back from the Philippines where I did some scuba and freediving. On one particular place, off Coron town on Bosuanga Island there were lots of perl farms. The place it's an arhipelago in the North of Palawan island - this is the very long one in the Southeast of Philippines - sorry could not make it easier, there are 7102 islands in Philippines you know! ) and it's best known for the sunken Japanese fleet from the WWII - some 24 ships sunk in one day out of which 14 are discovered and dived. Some of them are actually within the recreational freediving limits if there is such thing - i would say down to 20m or so the others are more like down to 35-40m. Visibility is relatively poor (shallow water, rich in biomass - might bump into a whaleshark!) but it's certainly worth the effort getting there!

Coming back to pearls, where there are pearl farms well there must be also oysters that dont belong to anybody, so you may combine shipwreck freediving with pearl harvesting though i would not set my annual budget on significant income from 3000 bucks-a-piece pickings

can give more info on Coron - loved that place, i could easily live there!

 

[Morg]

Hi Morg,

Just got back from the Philippines where I did some scuba and freediving. On one particular place, off Coron town on Bosuanga Island there were lots of perl farms. The place it's an arhipelago in the North of Palawan island - this is the very long one in the Southeast of Philippines - sorry could not make it easier, there are 7102 islands in Philippines you know! ) and it's best known for the sunken Japanese fleet from the WWII - some 24 ships sunk in one day out of which 14 are discovered and dived. Some of them are actually within the recreational freediving limits if there is such thing - i would say down to 20m or so the others are more like down to 35-40m. Visibility is relatively poor (shallow water, rich in biomass - might bump into a whaleshark!) but it's certainly worth the effort getting there!

Coming back to pearls, where there are pearl farms well there must be also oysters that dont belong to anybody, so you may combine shipwreck freediving with pearl harvesting though i would not set my annual budget on significant income from 3000 bucks-a-piece pickings

can give more info on Coron - loved that place, i could easily live there!

Yeah I don't think I will come up with anything like that... I heard something along the lines of out of 3 tons of oysters about 2-3 of them produce perfect pearls. Something along the lines of that.

I am just more into the fact that I can say I dove down and got this .

 

[Freediver81]

FP is not just limited to Tahiti, but the whole area.

I know that Sara, I was lucky to be there for a whole month in 2002!!! But still, people still mistakely call it Tahiti, when I tell people that I visited FP, they have no idea of what I'm talking about, the reason I wrote A.K.A Tahiti is because some people really mistakenly call it Tahiti.

I was in Bora Bora, Tahiti, Raiatea, Huahine, Tahaa and Moorea! Amazing Islands and even more amazing people! Really recommended but very expensive!!! As an example, a big bottle of soft drink = about 4 US dollars and so forth!

Said

 

[island_sands]

I know that Sara, I was lucky to be there for a whole month in 2002!!! But still, people still mistakely call it Tahiti, when I tell people that I visited FP, they have no idea of what I'm talking about, the reason I wrote A.K.A Tahiti is because some people really mistakenly call it Tahiti.

I was in Bora Bora, Tahiti, Raiatea, Huahine, Tahaa and Moorea! Amazing Islands and even more amazing people! Really recommended but very expensive!!! As an example, a big bottle of soft drink = about 4 US dollars and so forth!

Said

Why not post some pics in the gallery? i have a friend from Tahiti.. needless to say he was the best kayaker i have ever seen rofl

 

[Freediver81]

Why not post some pics in the gallery? i have a friend from Tahiti.. needless to say he was the best kayaker i have ever seen rofl

They are amazing on the traditional canoes, you can see them trainin every day just before sunset!!! I did a lot of kiaking there, its the best way to explore the islands and the lagoons! I'll scan a few pis in a few days!