The South Sea pearl is currently being cultured in a variety of areas throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, primarily in the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Australia. The South Sea pearl is considered to be one of the biggest commercially harvested cultured pearls in the entire world.

The common size for the South Sea pearl is a whopping 13mm, with the majority of harvests producing sizes that range from 9 mm to 20mm. The South Seas lie between the southern coast of China and the northern coast of Australia. These particular waters are the native habitat of a big oyster which is often referred to as the Pinctada maxima. This extremely large oyster can grow up to a total of 12 inches in diameter and nucleated with a much bigger bead than other similar saltwater oysters including the akoya.

There are typically two types of the Pinctada maxima which include the gold lipped and the silver lipped. The two types are distinguished the coloration which can be found on the outer edge of their interior.

This particular South Sea pearl is also known as the mother-of-pearl which is the reason behind the coloration of the cultured pearls produced. Unlike many of the akoya oysters, the South Sea oyster will only allow one nucleation to take place at a time.

The oyster will be nucleated when it is only about half developed ranginf from 4.7 inches to a total of 6.7 inches in size or approximately 24 months of age. Even though it only allows one nucleation at a time it can be nucleated up to as many as 3 times over the course of several years.

There are normally 4 reasons why the South Sea pearl grows into such a large size. The first reason is due to the large size of the Pinctada maxima which creates the pearl. The second reason is due to the size of the implanted bead. The third reason is because of the amount of time that the pearl is left to grow inside of the oyster.

The fourth and last reason is because of the actual environment that the oyster lives in. The gonads on the oyster is much larger than the akoya which allows it to nacre around the nucleus at a much faster rate especially when in warm water which helps to speed up the metabolism on the oyster.

The South Sea pearl is unique due to the many characteristics that it possess including its size, satiny luster, and the beautiful colors which include silver, golden and white.

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