Paul and Nandor went fishing so Sarah and I had a trip on a 40 foot catamaran to see where the unique black pearls of this area are cultivated at the floating Blue Lagoon Pearl Farm in the bay. The lads were’nt interested in seeing pearls, the chance to catch fish was too great (even though it was Nandor and Sarah’s 28th Wedding Anniversary the next day … Sarah took along the credit card anyway as apparently there was a shop on board!).
The pearl farm was on a floating platform and we were shown how they insert the seed pearl into the oyster (apparently it gets inserted into its male parts (together with a piece of the Nacra – the pearl coating) – this is to stop it rejecting the pearl! This process is very tricky like surgery done in sterile conditions mostly by Japanese technicians who can earn up to $5000 a day! Each insertion process has to be done in less than 45 seconds to avoid killing the oyster ( I’m sure the oyster would prefer it if it was even less than that!).
It then takes 11 years to form a pearl. The black pearl is unique to this area due to the shell coating being multi coloured so ‘black’ could also mean a range of colours. The white pearls of Broome are due to the larger shells with white Nacra coating inside. The pearl guide also told us that they inserted gold, opels and artificial shapes like dolphins and heart shapes so that the Nacra formed a pearl covering to create pendants etc.
Blue Lagoon Pearl Farm
It goes in here!
Results of gold and opel inserts with pearl covering
The trip was fascinating and to cap it all we then got a trip further out into Shark Bay to find some Dugongs (Sea Cows) and other creatures. The Dugongs proved to be a little elusive – they are brown come up for air like whales and dolphins but are shy and because they have no dorsal fin its tricky to spot them, they surface and dive before you can blink, so by the time you press the camera shutter they’ve gone man solid gone! We did see more dolphins who show off of course and played around the boat. They certainly love the camera!
Dolphins racing the boat
Follow me!
We did see some camels back on the beach but still not tempted to do the Lawrence of Arabia bit! The lads had just finished fishing when we returned but no catch of the day!
Hey they must have followed us from Broome!