Freshwater pearls are becoming very popular today vs. in the past. In the past oysters living in saltwater have been the traditional source of pearls. Today freswater pearls created by mollusks in freshwater lakes and rivers are becoming very well known. China has harvested freshwater pearls for many a millennia. The United States was also a major source of freshwater pearls throught the 19th century until over-harvesting and increasing pollution greatly reduced the number of available pearl-forming mussels.
Freshwater pearls appear in a wide variety of shapes and colors, and they tend to be less expensive than saltwater pearls, making them more and more popular. Freshwater pearls are also quite durable, resisting chipping, wear, and degeneration.
Freshwater pearls differ are not bead-nucleated and therefore differ from other cultured pearls. Freshwater mollusks are nucleated by creating a small incision in the fleshy mantle tissue and inserting a piece of mantle tissue from another oyster. This process may be completed 25 times on either side of the mantle, producing up to 50 pearls at a time. The mollusks are then returned to their freshwater environment where they are tended for 2-6 years. The resulting pearls are of solid nacre, but without a bead nucleusto guide the growth process, the pearls are rarely completely round.
In recent years the Chinese have been able to take the art of culturing freshwater pearls to higher levels. Recently the quality of these pearls have increased so much that many pearls in the top percentage of a harvest are nearly indistinguishable of their saltwater relatives. Gone are the rice-shape seed pearls as they are now being replaced with round, lustrous pearls of sizes as large as 16mm, mimicking large South Sea pearls. The recent quality of freshwater pearls has created a renewed interest in freshwater pearls as an affordable alternative to the higher priced saltwater pearls.
The Japanese have a distinguished history of culturing freshwater pearls as well. Lake Biwa was once world renowned for producing high-quality freshwater pearls. However, in the mid 1970's pearl farmingall but came to a halt due to pollution in this lake that was once well known for it's freshwater pearls. Today the Japanese are trying to farm freshwater pearls in Lake Kasumigaura, utilizing a bead-nucleated hybrid mussel. The resulting pearls have been quite large and unique. But due to the high prices of such pearls the market remains a niche for collectors.
