Diseases In Broome Pearls

Sad for Broome but probably good for Atlas Pearls producing in North Bali

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-22/oyster-deaths-could-kill-pearl-industry/5541906

A pearl farm in Western Australia is investigating a mysterious condition killing young oysters and crippling the region's industry.
Until about eight years ago, the pristine waters of WA's west Kimberley coast were producing the world's largest pearls.
But as the unknown condition killed young oysters, the number of WA pearl producers shrank from a dozen to just two.
Cygnet Bay Pearls general manager James Brown said it was not known whether the oyster deaths were caused by a disease, a virus or a change in environment.
"In spite of the Fisheries Department or the industry's best efforts we still can't even identify what it is," he said.
"We don't know if it's a virus or just something in the environment that changed."
Mr Brown has begun a research project on the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome, to find out.
He has built a hatchery, growing a range of oysters in tanks to work out which have the most resilient genes.
"Now if we can find particular families that are more resilient, and obviously grow good pearls at the end of it, then we'll focus on those families," he said.
"We'll basically analyse the genetics of those families and see if we can't find some markers."
The brood stock was spawned in April and has been fed a daily diet of algae.
This week, tucked safely inside mesh sacks, they will meet the ocean for the first time.
"Now they're over two millimetres in size, they've had their shell health checks from the fishery department and they're ready to be transferred to the farm," Mr Brown said.
Whichever oyster survives to produce the best pearl will continue to be bred in the hatchery.
"This type of research is critical to getting the industry back to where it was before," he said.
"If we want to get a thriving industry in the north again, this is where we've got to start."

However, there are concerns the solution could be up to a decade away.
"If we do it very well, it may give us results in five years, that we can start working in to our business, but it could take a lot longer than that," Mr Brown said.
"It could take 10 years or even 15 by the time we're successful here."
Mr Brown said the oyster deaths were a major factor in the industry's decline over the past decade.
"In 2004 we were producing the world's biggest pearls and incredible crops," Mr Brown said.
"From that perspective, industry was easy, and in the space of two years that completely turned around and now we struggle in a lot of ways.
"It basically shuts down our supply chain. If we can't grow the shell to a certain size, obviously we can't start culturing pearls, so the industry's been limited by that since then."