The Basic Methods of Pearl Farming: A Layman's Manual - CTSA

GlossaryGlossaryBaroque: irregularly shaped pearls.Circlé: pearls which have concentric grooves around the perimeter.Fouling, biofouling: small plants and animals that colonize the shell of the pearl oyster thereby becominga nuisance.Gape: involuntary relaxation of a pearl oyster’s shell, often as a result of spending too much time outof the water or a weakening of the adductor muscle.Gonad: reproductive organ, produces either sperm or eggs..Grafting: also known as seeding or nucleus implantation; a surgical procedure in which the nucleusand a small piece of mantle tissue are inserted into the gonad thus starting development of a culturedpearl.Half-pearl: a pearl of a half-spherical or semi-spherical shape attached to the shell, forming naturallywhen an irritant is covered with nacre.Larva, larvae: early developmental stage of the pearl oyster life cycle when the pearl oyster is a microscopicand free-swimming organism. This period lasts 2-3 weeks.Keshi: means “poppy” in Japanese, a by-product of the grafting process, produced when the implantedpiece of mantle tissue secretes nacre around itself, resulting in small, irregularly shaped pearls withouta nucleus.Mabe: dome-shaped secretions of nacre developed over an artificial form attached to the shell. Sometimesalso called half-pearls (see half-pearls).Metamorphosis: developmental stage involving anatomical and behavioral changes transforming thefree-swimming larvae to a settled adult.Nacre: also called mother-of-pearl; the iridescent material lining the inside of mollusk shells, composedof calcium carbonate crystals (aragonite) deposited between layers of organic material; one ofthe types of shell material formed by the epithelial cells in the mantle tissue.Page 73