To be a black pearl farmer you must first be a diver. Most Polynesias, it seems, are expert divers that can hold their breaths for two minutes on more. The whole time we were in Polynesia we only saw one scuba tank, and that was owned by a Frenchman. We saw Polynesians routinely go down to about 30 feet without any weights. See how they spear fish! Here's Teiki inspecting his oysters. If the water temperature and the depth isn't just right they'll die. In order for the oysters to thrive and produce pearls they must be hung from ropes down into the lagoon at a specific depth. The ropes are held in place by floats that are submerged just beneith the surface of the lagoon. Here's Alex setting a float and Teiki's diver retrieving oysters for harvesting.

The exact locations in the lagoon where a specific farmer's oysters are is carefully committed to memory. There are no maps or written records of their locations. This keeps it a secret and prevents poachers from stealing pearls. Without the farmer to take you there you'd never be able to find them in the huge lagoon.

Here a diver is returning oysters that have been haversted to the lagoon. These oysters are too tired to make more pearls and so here they will live out the rest of their lives spawning.

After a afternoon of diving the boat is full of oysters ready to be harvested. The lagoons in French Polynesia are considered public property but you must have a special permit from the government in order to farm pearls.