Manihiki, Cook Islands

Kia Orana from the Cook Islands

Centering on the remote Northern Cook Island atolls of Manihiki and Penrhyn, a remarkable collusion of science and nature begins as Black Lipped Mother of Pearl Shell (pinctada Margaritifera) are coaxed into producing the rare Black Cultured Pearl. With surgical precision, a technician or grafter uses a scalpel to make a small incision in the oysters gonad. A snippet of donor mantle tissue is inserted, followed by a nucleus, a bead carved from the shell of an American freshwater mussel. The mantle tissue then forms a living sac around the nuclear where nacre, the pearlescent substance that a pearl is made of, is created and deposited over the nucleus.

As Pinctada Margaritifera is sensitive to variations in water temperature, it will only flourish in certain lagoons, limiting the number of pearls able to be produced and like all South Sea Pearls, Cook Islands South Sea Black Pearls require two year to develop their heavy coating of thick lustrous nacre.
Black Lipped Oyster

In 1994 The Cook Island Pearl Guild was established to develop and set comprehensive standards to safeguard the industry. These policies include product verification to ensure that all industry criteria are met and adhered to, thus protecting consumers at all levels. Based in the Northern Cook Islands, the Federation is a collective body of farmers who provide a unified voice for producers and develop guidelines for the strategic growth, maintenance and development of the farming industry.

Every pearl purchased for Case by Case comes from a farmer belonging to this guild.