Pearl farms sit in some of the cleanest, most remote water on the planet, and that is not an accident. Pearl oysters are filter feeders, exquisitely sensitive to pollution and temperature swings, so they only thrive where the water stays warm, clear and undisturbed. The upside for anyone who visits is that those conditions tend to coincide with spectacular tropical lagoons.
Saltwater cultured pearls come from a handful of well-defined regions, each tied to a specific oyster. Akoya pearls (Pinctada fucata) are grown mainly in Japan and along the southern coast of China, across Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. White and golden South Sea pearls (Pinctada maxima) are farmed across a broad arc from the northern coast of Australia through Indonesia and into the Philippines. Tahitian pearls (Pinctada margaritifera) are cultured in the lagoons of French Polynesia, with the Gambier Islands and the Tuamotu Archipelago among the most productive areas. Freshwater cultured pearls, grown in mussels rather than oysters, come overwhelmingly from China.

At The South Sea Pearl we buy directly from these origins, which is why we can speak to each oyster and each lagoon by name rather than treating "pearl" as one undifferentiated thing.