Does Harvesting a Pearl Kill the Oyster?

<p>Most of us know that pearls come from oysters, those shelled mollusks of the sea. (Pedantically, this isn&rsquo;t quite true; the oysters we eat can create pearls, but most jewelry pearls actually come from other species of mollusks that are not oysters. I may still refer to these creatures as oysters throughout this article, however, as oysters are capable of producing pearls, even though they aren&rsquo;t jewelry quality.)</p> <p>Natural pearls form when a bit of sand or some other hard irritant gets inside the shell of a mollusk. In order to alleviate the rubbing of this irritant against the mollusk&rsquo;s soft tissues, the creature coats it in layers of a substance called&nbsp;<strong>nacre.</strong>&nbsp;We sometimes call this substance&nbsp;<strong>mother-of-pearl</strong>.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/a-microbiome-scientist-at-large/does-harvesting-a-pearl-kill-the-oyster-a47509f77f30"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>
Tags: Pearl Kill