{"id":2736,"date":"2026-08-14T15:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/the-angry-oysters-collective-pearls-are-produced-by-irritated-mollusks\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T15:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:25:20","slug":"the-angry-oysters-collective-pearls-are-produced-by-irritated-mollusks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/the-angry-oysters-collective-pearls-are-produced-by-irritated-mollusks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Angry Oysters Collective: Pearls Are Produced by Irritated Mollusks"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>In the center of a famous Vermeer painting, pearls have long been prized as jewelry. Yet they do not form from the Earth\u2019s depths; they grow inside the protective shells of mollusks.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mother-of-Pearl Spheres<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The shells of <strong>mollusks<\/strong>, with their soft and slimy bodies, are their main line of defense. But when pathogens manage to breach them, these creatures employ a remarkable strategy to trap them. By absorbing calcium carbonate found in the surrounding water, they can produce aragonite, which, when bound to a protein known as conchiolin, ultimately forms a nacreous sphere with a distinctive luster.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Nuclear commandos? Jellyfish again attack a French power plant<\/span><\/section>\n<p>To obtain large quantities, the jewelry industry relies on farming. Generally, oyster farmers manually insert a small foreign object (such as a fragment of glass or plastic) inside the oyster\u2019s shell before returning it to the water. It will take up to five years to yield a fully formed pearl.<\/p>\n<p>Among the most sought-after is the black pearl, with anthracite or dark green hues, produced by the Tahitian black-lipped oyster. While pearl oysters produce them less frequently, they can still be genuine giants.<\/p>\n<p>For these bivalves, the official record is held by the species <em>Tridacna gigas<\/em>, with a pearl weighing over 27 kilograms found in the Philippines in 1959. Not confirmed by Guinness World Records, a specimen weighing 34 kilograms, known as the <em>Puerto Princesa Pearl<\/em>, was discovered in 2006 in the same waters by a fisherman.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Voracious arachnids: harvestmen caught attacking live frogs<\/span><\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"759\" height=\"899\" src=\"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786717517_967_The-Angry-Oysters-Collective-Pearls-Are-Produced-by-Irritated-Mollusks.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-771535\"  ><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Not-So-Radiant Future<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Like many marine species, climate change poses a major threat to mollusks.<\/p>\n<p>In the coming decades, the warming of the seas and ocean acidification, linked to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, could push these creatures to devote more of their resources to strengthening their shells, thereby reducing the nacre available for pearl production.<\/p>\n<p>In case you didn\u2019t know, the oldest animal on Earth was a mollusk, which tragically died at the age of 507 years.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">The brains of squids shrink due to ocean acidification<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2130,2132,2135,2136,2131,2133,2134],"class_list":["post-2736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-angry","tag-collective","tag-irritated","tag-mollusks","tag-oysters","tag-pearls","tag-produced","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2738,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions\/2738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}