Do they have to kill the oyster to obtain the pearl?

Question

Do they have to kill the oyster to obtain the pearl?

Answer 1

Edit: Sorry, I was wrong... I had been told that they were killed by a woman at a Las Vegas Jewelry Store.

BUT

In Palm Island, Queensland, Australia in 2004, in a now closed pearl farm, pearl oysters commenced life as spats from hatchery farms, and were then grown for two years on a pearl farm. They were then seeded as pearls and cultivated for another two years, suspended on long lines, some on the surface, others below the surface. Each line had vertical lines dropping from it at one metre intervals with about six to eight shells on each vertical line. When the pearl had grown, two to three years after seeding, it was removed and the shell was reseeded to produce a second, bigger, pearl. Shells had a commercial production life of 10 to 12 years, producing roughly every two years.[1]

They rise the oyster specifically to GET the pearl...

Cultured Pearls:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultured_pe...

Oysters for eating are grown seperately from Pearl Oysters...

Oysters for eating are farmed just as the pearl oysters are... missing just one step... the insertion of the nuclious (Usually carved from oyster shell) which will become the pearl.

NATURAL Pearls take YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS to form... A Pearl the size of a $10.00 cultured pearl would take a life time and cost more then your car.

The meat is used for either human food or animal food...

The shell is used for jewelry and ground down into powder for industrial use...

It isn't as if anything goes to waste...

Oysters are easy to raise in a 'farm' environment...

They don't use wild oysters to make pearls or even for food now-a-days.

Don't worry about the poor little oyster... The farmer will 'seed' a million more next season to continue the cycle.

Answer 2

This is such a good question, one I'd never thought about before! So perhaps wearing pearls is just as unethical as wearing fur or leather? I have studied bivalves such as oysters and I know how the make the pearl. I'm fairly sure they would have to break the oyster in order to open it wide enough to get the pearl out.

Answer 3

I'm not sure but I believe the pearl is under the muscle part and the only way to get the pearl is to tear through the muscle.