Integrated management of pearl culture in French Polynesia in the context of global change: Synopsis of existing results

Abstract

The paper presents a state of the art on knowledge of the black pearl oyster aquaculture at the scale of French Polynesia. It also introduces the main results obtained throughout the multi-partners POLYPERL project. The goal of this project was to develop an integrated and participative action-research of the pearl oyster culture system, focusing on the environmental, technological, economical and societal dimensions impacting the industry. The research proposed ranges from the understanding of biological phenomena of the production system to socio-economic aspects and governance of the industry, taking into account the management of anthropogenic, climate and health risks. We introduce here the different papers from the POLYPERL project that are compiled in this volume of ECSS dealing with recent scientific work that can contribute to sustainability of the pearl industry in French Polynesia.

Research Trends of Development on Pearl Bivalve Mollusks Based on a Bibliometric Network Analysis in the Past 25 Years

“…Since Mikimoto succeeded in culturing blister pearls in 1893, pearls have been cultured worldwide by utilizing different bivalve mollusk species (Nagai, 2013), and the pearl farming industry has grown rapidly (Gueguen et al, 2016;Johnston et al, 2019). The black pearl oyster P. margaritifera, found in Tahiti and many other Pacific islands, including the Cook Islands and Fiji, is widely used for the production of cultured pearls (Kishore et al, 2018;Johnston B. et al, 2020;Johnston W. et al, 2020).…”

Spatio-Temporal Variation in Growth Performance and Condition of the Winged Pearl Oyster Pteria penguin

“…Currently, mabé pearl farms are distributed among the three main island groups of Tonga (Johnston et al, 2019) which span three degrees of latitude (∼300 km) and vary in environmental conditions (Smallhorn-West et al, 2020). To date, no studies have investigated large-scale spatial variation in growth performance of P. penguin, yet such information is vital to inform pearl farm site selection to maximize pearl farm productivity, profitability, and associated livelihood benefits (Pouvreau and Prasil, 2001;Gaertner-Mazouni and Le Moullac, 2016;Gueguen et al, 2016).…”