Officials representing Rongelap and Namdrik atoll governments said Monday they generated a combined more than $31,000 from a pearl auction and sale last weekend. Officials from both atolls said they have more pearls to sell, which will be the subject of additional sales and auctions in coming weeks.
“The pearl industry is back in the Marshall Islands,” said the government’s Minister of Resources and Development Mattlan Zackhras, who represents Namdrik in parliament, on Tuesday.
Private pearl farms, including one run by local business Robert Reimers Enterprises, closed several years ago after more than 10 years of operation in part because they could not get a reliable supply of “spat,” the baby oysters that produce black lip pearl oysters. That has now changed, according to people involved in the current pearl effort.
The College of the Marshall Islands’ oyster hatchery on Majuro is working successfully, said Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi. Even Rongelap and Namdrik combined cannot absorb the supply of spat from the college. This is opening the opportunity for other local governments to take up pearls.
The lack of a working hatchery was a major impediment to the industry growing in the past, said Matayoshi. That has changed with the college’s hatchery operation, and the availability of spat for pearl farming can create jobs for people in the Marshall Islands, said Matayoshi.
In a cooperative project with the college, off-island trainers were brought in earlier this month to work with college students to set many of the pearls into gold jewelry. Some of the pearls were made into necklaces, earrings and rings, while others were sold individually.
It’s a good start, said Matayoshi.
The atolls are rolling money generated back into their pearl farm operations. One hundred percent of the proceeds goes back to the community’s pearl farm project, said Zackhras. “We will pay for our sales team and farm crew and secure more supplies and materials for our pearl farm project. I’m very proud of both communities for taking the lead to revive the pearl industry in the Marshall Islands.”
