The First Attempts to Cultivate Abalone Pearls

The French scientist Louis Bouton using the European Abalone Haliotis Tuberculata experimentally produced the first cultured blister and spherical pearls in the late 1890s. Forty years later Bestwick claimed to have cultured both blister and whole free-formed pearls in Abalone from California. This work was continued by Japanese scientist Dr. Kan Uno during the mid-1950s. Dr. Uno made significant advances in culturing Abalone pearls by drilling a hole through the shell to secure the nucleus (Dr. P.Fankboner, 1995). He has produced blister pearls up to 22mm in diameter in Haliotis discus in Japan. However, his attempts at producing whole round pearls were less successful. Later Cho Won-Ho, president of Korea Abalone Pearls in South Korea, began cultivating Abalone pearls. However this research was halted when the company discontinued operations. In 1980, Dr. Fankboner, professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, was the first to produce jewellery-quality, cultured Abalone blister pearls in North America using the Pinto Abalone "Haliotis Kamtschatkana." He managed to produce the world's largest blister pearl, which measures 27mm. Fankboner has experimented with producing bead-nucleated pearls and claims to have cultured a few whole free formed tissue-nucleated pearls as large as 8mm. In addition to Dr. Fankboners Pacific Culture Company, there are some other pearl farms in California and six in New Zealand. Abalone pearl culture has also been attempted in Australia, China, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Korea and Ireland with varying degrees of success.

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