Cook Islands, the other land of "black pearls"
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
When we talk about cultured pearls from the Pinctada margaritifera pearl oyster, also known as Black Pearls, we naturally think of Tahiti. We often forget that the Cook Islands also share a rich history with this oceanic gem, particularly the atolls in the northern part of the archipelago. Among them, Manihiki remains a leading pearl-producing atoll.
© Text: Alix Baer - Photos: Cook Islands Tourism Board
From pearl farming to jewelry
Two hours and forty minutes southwest of Papeete, Rarotonga is the main island of the Cook Islands archipelago, which geographically only shares the name. In fact, its 15 high and low islands are scattered across nearly 2 million square kilometers. The northern atolls share many similarities with those of the Tuamotu Archipelago.
Among them is Manihiki. This small coral atoll in the northern Cook Islands archipelago covers barely more than 5 km² of land, with a central lagoon 14 km long and 9 km wide (50 km², 1344 acres). Like the Tuamotu atolls that produce the most pearl oysters, Manihiki possesses rare qualities, specified by specialists in the 1950s and 1960s (Ron Powell, Gilbert Ranson), and which Jean-Marie Domard summarized as follows: small and enclosed like Hikueru; dotted with
rocks like Hikueru, Takapoto, Takume or Marutea south; deep like South Marutea and Manuae (Scilly).
An ideal lagoon
Indeed, Manihiki possesses many of these qualities. The atoll has no pass, which limits the number of predators and the influx of excessive external water that would disrupt the delicate balance of the ecosystem. Water renewal occurs gradually through hoa, shallow, non-navigable channels open to the ocean between the motu (islets). The fringing barrier reef protects the raised atoll from excessively strong swells. The atoll is quite deep, averaging 40 to 50 meters, with depths reaching 70 meters in certain central basins composed of calcareous and coral detrital sediments.
The waters are very clear, reasonably salty, and well-oxygenated. Their nutrient content is relative and perfectly balanced for the black-lipped oyster Pinctada margaritifera, var. Cumingii. Finally, the Manihiki lagoon is dotted with numerous coral outcrops, known as kāoa.
Manihiki possesses rare qualities: small and enclosed, dotted with coral reefs, well-oxygenated, and deep.
Some outcrops are at the surface (Karena in Pa'umotu); others are found a few meters below the water's surface (marahi in Pa'umotu); and still others, rocks with a hard substrate (Kapuku in Pa'umotu), rise only a few meters above the seabed. It is on these rocky outcrops that the largest pearl oyster populations are found. The Manihiki lagoon has thus always provided an ideal environment for the black-lipped pearl oyster.
Beginnings of mother-of-pearl mining
The atoll has been inhabited by Polynesians since at least 900 or 1000 AD. According to oral tradition, it was discovered by Huku, a navigator and fisherman from Rarotonga. Pearl oyster beds were exploited from the second millennium AD onward. The inhabitants of Manihiki and the neighboring atoll Rakahanga practiced cyclical migration between the two islands to allow for the regeneration of natural resources. Mother-of-pearl tools and ornaments were crafted in the same way as in the rest of Eastern Polynesia.
The first documented European contact with Manihiki dates back to 1822 with the arrival of the Good Hope, an American ship that sighted the island and named it "Humphrey Island" on maps. Other ships, including whalers, visited the atoll during the 19th century. Some were searching for sea squirts (rori) and mother-of-pearl to supplement their cargo. Manihiki was subsequently considered an important pearling atoll for ships coming from Port Jackson (later Sydney). The development of the two
The main villages of the atoll, Tauhunu (west) and Tukao (east), were established at that time to alternately exploit the island's main natural resources. In 1888, the Cook Islands became a British protectorate. However, it was only when these islands were annexed by New Zealand in 1901 that Manihiki became part of the archipelago.
Photo of a batch of baroque cultured pearls (circled or irregular). The colors, from aubergine to black, including blues and greens, are typical of black-lipped pearl oysters.
Manihiki's great advantage lies in the ideal conditions that its lagoon offers for collecting spat.
The atoll lagoon has always offered the best yields to pearl divers. The lagoons of Penrhyn and Suwarrow Islands were also exploited, but with less success. In the 1950s, pearl oysters were also introduced into the lagoons of Pukapuka, Rakahanga, and Palmerston, with varying degrees of success. However, the overexploitation of the deposits
Pearl oysters reached Manihiki, just as they reached the Tuamotu atolls. Replenishing pearl oyster stocks then became a priority, to ensure the resource wouldn't run out. Indeed, in the 1950s, the total value of mother-of-pearl exports from the Cook Islands, particularly Manihiki, was around £850,000 per year. The majority of this was then acquired by the United States, at a price of around £500 per ton (equivalent to 3 MXPF today, or NZ$48,000).
Spat collection
Manihiki's greatest advantage, even before pearl farming was established in the atoll's lagoon, lay in the ideal conditions it offered for collecting pearl spat. It was in this context that the British biologist Ronald Powell introduced, as early as the 1950s, the idea of installing collectors to replenish natural stocks of pearl oysters. Indeed, new needs were emerging alongside pearl farming. The development of pearl farming by the Japanese in northeastern Australia, followed by experimental pearl oyster grafting trials beginning in 1961 in the French Establishments in Oceania (EFO), the future French Polynesia, were closely analyzed by biologists and entrepreneurs from New Zealand and the Cook Islands. Thus, in the early 1960s, Peter Cummings, an Australian who had observed Japanese grafting techniques in Australia, established the first pearl farm in Manihiki. He succeeded in producing quality pearls, but disagreements with the island council led to the closure of his farm. It was finally in the 1980s, with local figures like Papa Tekake Williams and initiatives like that of Tahitian Yves Chen Pan, that pearl farms became firmly established in the lagoons of the northern atolls. Their success inspired the creation of numerous farms in the lagoons of Manihiki, Penrhyn, and Rakahanga, with a phenomenon similar to that which was then affecting the pearl lagoons of the Tuamotu Archipelago. At its peak in the 1990s, there were nearly 300 pearl farms, generating black pearl exports worth almost NZ$20 million annually.
Dock for retrieving raised mother-of-pearl lines, for monitoring, cleaning or harvesting.
For the sustainability of practices
In 1997, Cyclone Martin devastated much of the pearl farming infrastructure in Manihiki. This dramatic episode for pearl farmers was compounded by the 1998 Asian financial crisis, followed by the global geopolitical crisis stemming from September 11, 2001. Finally, recovery was rendered almost impossible by a pearl oyster disease identified in the early 2000s. It was attributed to overpopulation of farmed oysters, resulting from flawed environmental management of the fragile ecosystem.
Indeed, problems of eutrophication and disease, exacerbated by the confinement of the Manihiki lagoon, arose from the overpopulation of pearl oysters, as well as the proliferation of organic and plastic waste. The drop in global prices worsened the crisis and prevented the re-establishment of many farms. Today, only a few well-managed operations continue. The alarm raised by scientists regarding the fragility of pearl lagoons fostered political awareness.
Two initiatives were implemented : The Manihiki Pearl Farming Management Plan 2016–2026, aimed at establishing environmentally sustainable pearl farming and improving the economic well-being of the Manihiki community. The Manihiki Lagoon Clean-Up Project, launched in 2017, aims to remove abandoned materials from former pearl farms and restore the lagoon ecosystem.
Today, although the pearl industry has slowed down compared to its peak in the 1990s, it remains an important component of the local economy, with ongoing efforts to ensure its sustainability.