Link to FIJI PHOTOS and VIDEOS Album
Link to PEARL FARM PHOTO Album
We had a No Dive Day, Horrors, so we decided to do a trip to a waterfall and to a Pearl Farm.
The drive out to the Pearl Farm required 4 wheel drive. Pretty drive though.
The Van made it, I don't know how 
The Boutique was 600 Meters THAT way. 
That's 600 Meters into the ocean. 
We could have done some Free Diving to see the Oysters. But that is over 30 feet down to get to the top of the lines, then another 60 feet to where the Oysters are. 90 feet is NOT an easy free dive. I could easily get to the top of the lines. After that? I could probably get down, but not back up. 
That's Fiji currency, but that's still $400 US. There were less expensive ones, and MUCH more expensive ones. 
Oysters in the racks. 
Opening up a non-producer for us to inspect. 
A beautiful Oyster and two shrimp. When they harvest Pearls, they do not kill the oyster. The oyster is partly opened up, and the pearl is taken out. 
There are always two of these shrimp in an oyster. They have a symbiotic relationship. These two ended up being a symbiotic dinner for some fish. 
Here is how a Pearl is made. See that thing in the blue circle? That's a Gonad. Yup, a Gonad. When the oyster is ready, the farmer (or the specialist that is called in) inserts a small ball made of shell into the Gonad. Then a little bit of the flesh shown in the green circle. That flesh is what decides the color of the final pearl. The Oyster sees the ball as a foreign object and coats it repeatedly with a hard shell material. Heck, if someone put a shell ball in my gonad I would definitely consider it a foreign object. Over time the pearl is formed. Then it is removed, and the process is repeated until the oyster stops responding to the ball. 
We may not have been able to swim down to the oysters, but the local area is beautiful and there is great snorkeling here. 