Shell Species Widely Found

In the extraordinarily complex world of mollusks, the bivalves--oysters, scallops, mussels, clams and giant clams--may not be the most numerous of species, but they are definitely the most coveted.

Strictly speaking, the black-lipped pearl oyster found in French Polynesia waters is not really an oyster, but a special type of mollusk. It's the bivalve mollusk, which has a laterally compressed body and an external shell consisting of two dorsally hinged valves.

The shell of the "Pinctada margaritifera, variety cumingi" has a colour ranging from grey to black and is formed from three layers.

Species of this shell are widely distributed throughout tropical Indo-Pacific waters from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of California and from Japan to the southern islands of the Pacific. More specifically, this oyster also is found in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, New Caledonia, the Philippines, Panama and the Gulf of California.

An adult Pinctada oyster can reach a diameter of 30 centimeters (11.8 inches), with a weight exceeding 5 kilograms (11 pounds). Rare specimens as large as 9 kilos (19.8 pounds) have been harvested. In French Polynesia, the "Pinctada margaritifera" is found in five archipelagoes that stretch from the Marquesas Islands in the north to the Austral Islands in the south and from the Leeward Islands in the west to the Gambier Islands in the east.

Photo Source: "La Magie de la Perle Noire", P. Salomon and M. Roudnitska