Josh Humbert at Komoka Pearls operates a pearl farm on an atoll in French Polynesia, home to about 500 inhabitants. Kamoka supplies Roseate with black Tahitian pearls, a feature of our product line. These Tahitian pearls display unusual colors like purples, greens, and grays with such delightful variation that the mixed strands are one of our most popular items. So, it was with deep concern that we learned more from Josh about a serious shortage of production oysters.
Josh is recognized as a skilled pearl grafter and manages the farm, originally established by his father. The farm is built out on a coral head within the atoll lagoon joined to land by a narrow, shaky, 60-foot bridge.
The water here is a wild, electric green. Reef sharks circle with eagle rays and turtles. Colorful Picasso trigger fish patrol the coral with damsel fish. This is a place of compost toilets, rainwater collection, and extensive recycling. The farm requires sustainable practices to keep the water pristine to ensure pearl production.
To make a successful commercial enterprise at the fringe of civilization, you need creativity and problem-solving skills. During a tuna fishing trip with Josh, the tip of my fishing rod broke off fighting a big fish. By the light of next morning Josh had conferred with his team and devised a practical solution with a combination of epoxy and creative joinder. Josh has an adventurer’s spirit rolled together with massive and impressive aptitude. He assesses a range of practical problems daily, mapping their implications, prioritizing them, and crafting solutions. Facing an oyster shortage, Josh embarked on an inventive program with Université de la Polynésie française.
The problem is finding competitive space for baby oysters to grow. Ocean oysters are broadcast spawners that release eggs and sperm into the water column at certain mysterious cues probably brought by temperature and lunar cycle. Many of the eggs fertilize and become larvae, eventually forming shells and developing into young oysters. Josh uses collection devices in the lagoon to provide cultivation space for oyster larvae, but rapidly reproducing invertebrates are creating a crisis by crowding out surface space for the young oysters to grow. This depletes Josh’s supply of oysters to farm and decreases the pearl yield.
To counter this, Josh and his colleagues designed a new oyster collector. This structure- described by Josh as a Christmas tree of resting cups with 30 discs per collector- prevents invertebrates from easily transferring between cups, limiting invasive reproduction and preserving space for the developing oysters.
It is too early for results to be known. Oyster eating crabs are a persistent threat. But the new oyster collectors are increasing chances for improved yields.
Oyster farm life in French Polynesia is remotely glorious, framed by an environmental surrounding sometimes too beautiful to process. Commercial success or failure is about choices, with problems constantly thrown in the mix, testing the limits and options. The ingenuity of Josh and his colleagues is usually validated by beautiful, valuable pearl product. In this case, it was great to learn about creative solutions to this latest farming threat.
