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Pearl History

Mitsubishi commenced pearl culture with the South Sea pearl oyster in 1916, as soon as the technology patent was commercialized. By 1931 this project was showing signs of success, but was upset by the death of Tatsuhei Mise. Although the project was recommenced after Tatsuhei's death, the project was discontinued at the beginning of WWII before significant productions of pearls were achieved.

After WWII, new south sea pearl projects were commenced in the early 1950s at Kuri Bay and Port Essington in Australia, and Burma. Japanese companies were involved in all projects using technicians from the original Mitsubishi South Sea pre-war projects. Kuri Bay is now the location of one of the largest and most well-known pearl farms owned by Paspaley, the biggest producer of South Sea pearls in the world.

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Courtesy of "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl#History" 

Australian South Sea Pearl
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Australian South Sea Pearls originate in the pristine waters of Australia’s remote North West coast. This is the domain of the wild Pinctada maxima oyster, the King of pearl oysters and the source of the World’s most precious mother of pearl. The Pinctada maxima produces pearls of incomparable beauty, size and quality.
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Australia’s pearl beds are managed with environmental sensitivity and are as healthy todays as when they were first discovered 150 years ago, a discovery which sparked the richest pearl era of all time -the Victorian Pearl era. Today teams of divers work from modern pearl luggers, individually handpicking each solitary oyster from the seabed. This ensures the seabed is left without damage and preserved for future generations. Thanks to pearl culture technology, the oysters are no longer cut open in search for natural pearls, but are implanted with tiny spheres of shell and carried alive to new homes at pearl farms nearby. There, pearl farmers take care of each oyster for periods of 2 to 6 years - gently cleaning each oyster every 2 weeks until the pearl reaches maturity. The finest quality of these pearls are among the rarest of all gems - many times rarer than most diamond.
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Courtesy of "www.australiansouthseapearls.com"
Tahitian Black Pearl​
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Tahitian pearls, frequently referred to as black pearls, are highly valued because of their rarity; the culturing process for them dictates a smaller volume output and they can never be mass-produced because, in common with most sea pearls, the oyster can only be nucleated with one pearl at a time, while freshwater mussels are capable of multiple pearl implants. Before the days of cultured pearls, black pearls were rare and highly valued for the simple reason that white pearl oysters rarely produced naturally black pearls, and black pearl oysters rarely produced any natural pearls at all. 
 
Since the development of pearl culture technology, the black pearl oysters Pinctada margaritifera found in Tahiti and many other Pacific islands including the Cook Islands and Fiji are being extensively used for producing cultured pearls.
 
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Courtesy of "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl#History"
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