MAJURO — “Omerta,” the Sicilian code of honor which forbids informing on or telling the secrets of others, might equally apply to the pearl oyster seeding trade.
To produce pearls in commercially viable numbers, the oysters must be “seeded” manually by specially trained “seeding technicians.” This difficult and essential component of the pearl oyster industry is, almost universally, a closely guarded trade secret that is not shared by the small number of seeding technicians who ply their trade worldwide.
But the Black Pearls of Micronesia pearl farm in the Marshall Islands discovered one foreign technician who not only isn’t paranoid about islanders looking over her shoulder while she seeds the oysters, she’s actively training a crew of Marshall Islanders to do the job themselves.
After working with four different, but equally secretive, seeding technicians over the past several years, Black Pearls of Micronesia was delighted with the arrival of Berni Aquilina, a New Zealand-based pearl technician.
She wrapped up three weeks at BPOM’s isolated Majuro pearl farm this week, a visit that involved seeding thousands of pearl oysters and running a comprehensive training program for the entire crew of 10 workers, with a focus on three of the senior workers, to develop seeding skills.
Farm manager Virgil Alfred said that the change in work attitude among the 10 Marshall Islanders working at the farm has been noticeable as a result of the growth of their knowledge of pearl oyster growing since Aquilina started the training.
Why is Aquilina breaking with the tradition of secrecy surrounding her trade?
She said that when she started out to learn pearl seeding skills, she experienced difficulty herself in gaining training from those skilled in the trade. As a consequence, she said she appreciates the difficulty that people in small islands have in gaining access to these skills and wants to help pass them along.
In addition, by passing along skills to people locally, they can then participate more fully in their own businesses and economic development, she indicated.
To appreciate her contribution at the BPOM farm in just three weeks, one has to understand how other seeding technicians cloak their work in secrecy. “One worked behind a curtain and wouldn’t allow anyone near him when he was seeding the oysters,” said Robert Muller, a BPOM owner.
Another turned a high-backed work table around so that the six-foot-high back blocked any curious local workers from seeing what he was doing.
With Aquilina on island, it was the first time that the work tables were turned so that the Marshallese workers could see her work—and begin actually learn the seeding themselves, Alfred said.
Aquilina said that it’s not a skill that’s learned overnight. BPOM has already made plans to bring her back later this year to conduct another seeding and continue training the local staff.
In addition to working here, she’s also working with two pearl growing farms in the Cook Islands, providing similar seeding services and training.
Is she worried that by passing on her skills, she’ll do herself out of a job? On the contrary, Aquilina believes there’s plenty of work for pearl seeding technicians in the region, and that because of the difficulty in developing a proficiency level, there’s plenty of work for the foreseeable future.
