Cygnet Bay discovers two natural pearls in one shell

Written on the 12 May 2017

Australia's longest running pearl farm has enjoyed a rare moment this week opening up a pearl shell to discover two natural pearls.

"The industry thinking is that one in every 10,000 shells might have a natural pearl in it," Cygnet Bay Pearls general manager James Brown said.

"But what's interesting about this is that often natural pearls are very small or not particularly great quality, but with this, they were quite large and there were two of them sitting side by side."

Mr Brown said his family had been pearling for more than 70 years north of Broome, and had never come across two natural pearls in the one shell.

"We sell tens of thousands of cultured pearls, but so very few natural pearls," he said.

"There is a very small market of natural pearls around the world and they are extremely valuable.

"They can be 10 to 100 times more valuable than a similar shape and sized cultured pearl."

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Source: ABC Rural