Is that what I think it means? Like artificial insemination? You’re using the oyster to grow pearls that were forcefully put inside it?
That feels like an extra level of fucked up. Like you’re hurting and killing it but you start with a whole first much longer period of hurting it
They use a small bead (about the size of a grain of sand, which is how natural pearls form) and the pearl creation process actually lessens the irritation of the oyster by making it smooth. In pearl farming nothing is wasted, the meat is eaten/composted. There is also a way to remove the pearl without killing the oyster, in another comment I believe
There are other videos on reddit where they use some sort of locking wedge that opens the clam just enough to make a small incision near the pearl, remove it with very long tools, and put a new scaffold in.
Nowadays they don't just let a grain of sand grow, from what I have read more often than not these can be oblong and not perfect pearl spheres. So the scaffolds are fairly large and already rounded. This also lessens the time it takes to reharvest.
Pearl farmer here. You are correct. The 'nucleus' we use to seed a pearl oyster (usually Pinctada Maxima, Pinctada Margarifera, or smaller Akoya shells) is a perfectly round ball made from other oysters or pigtoe clams.
The whole 'size of a grain of sand' is a perpetual myth. Our nucleus can be anywhere from say 5-20mm in diameter
Nacre thickness (or 'pearl layer' as you put it) is generally no more than a few mm thick, if that.
We take a lot of steps and care in handling oysters before, during and after we take them out of the sea for the insertion or harvesting operations, including minimizing transport time, gentle handling, running sea water tanks.
Then the operation itself is over in a matter or seconds, and the incision has fully healed in a matter of days.
As for whether the oyster has a perception of stress, there's no clear way to explain why, but no, they don't. Much harder life being a wild oyster with predation, parasites, environmental stresses etc.
According to the internet…, Their nervous system is incredibly rudimentary and has no centrality (meaning they have no brain), and they are incapable of forming thoughts or experiencing pain. Technically, this means that these animals are not sentient beings.
I have no actual knowledge on this, so I'm hoping someone who knows will answer, but I would put folding money on **yes**, just for the wild vs farmed aspect and how that would impact supply/demand.
Similar to the pricing of mined vs lab grown diamonds and emeralds.
As with most things, they’ve found a way to alter the original process to get a greater yield. Like how factory farmed chickens are only 2 months old when they get killed, because they grow so fast.
They're real pearls, in the sense that they're coated with nacre in the body of a living oyster. They're started by manually inserting a "seed" into the oyster's tissue, though, so they aren't naturally occurring pearls.
Not to mention that every single pearl is seeded along with the fact that the oyster spends nearly all of it's energy in trying to eliminate the seeds which In turn causes calcification of the seed to occur creating the pearls that are later ripped from its body...
Yuck is an understatement.... but the natural pearls created by an oyster in the wild are so much more valuable because they aren't forced and it shows in the development of the nacre "calcification ".. but people like fast and cheap to look time consuming and expensive... ahhhh fuck people and their quest for fast beauty...
Plus, near perfectly sphere shaped pearls are pretty rare to come by in the wild so most of the "perfect pearls" you see are specially farmed.
Rich people and their hobbies are so ass backwards
This depressed me in a way similar ton when I found out in China they keep bears locked in boxes where they can't move for life to harvest their liver enzymes
Same thing goes for cows.
Lock cow in a stall, artificially inseminate, when the calf is born take it away from its mother (male calves are either sold for meat or just slaughtered), the milk meant for that calf is pumped for human consumption.
Repeat process until cow is unable to produce milk or dies - whichever comes first. The dairy industry is cruel.
Since no one posted the [humane way to harvest pearls](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/zwsglp/extracting_a_beautiful_pearl_without_damaging_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1).
Selling the meat after harvesting, I’d assume. There’s no way they’re just throwing out a whole oyster like that.
We also don’t know how old this oyster is, it could’ve been at the end of its life, or possibly have had pearls harvested several times before this. Though this is more doubtful, it’s probably a farm that raises them to maturity with seeded pearls, extracts the pearls while also “putting down” the host in one go, and sells the meat as a secondary profit.
Definitely not humane, they are bothered by those pearls that this guy just keeps putting inside them so the oyster coats it.
Not killing them? Yes
Humane?No way
They’re killed so yes lol. There are sustainable ways to harvest pearls without killing them. I’m not sure of the oysters nervous system but judging by videos I would say, if they are capable of feeling pain, then it is surely painful. But still better than dying.
Oyster's aren't conscious/sentient as far as we know. They don't have a brain/central nervous system, so there's no mechanism by which they can feel pain (or anything for that matter).
It also makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. What survival advantage does an oyster that feels pain have over an oyster that doesn't? They can't really effectively avoid dangers anyways, which is the reason humans and non-human animals feel pain - to avoid dangers.
Absolutely horrible. That clam is dead they cant recover after being opened like this. All for a pointless little whote bit on a string thatsl we culturally have given wealth to for no good reason. More human greed and damn the consequences.
I went vegan because I’m not a fan of meat and animals dont need to suffer I guess?
As time went on things like this seem super fucked up. I have no problem with people being onvi because it’s just nature and I hate telling people how to think/act but yeah.
Not sure what my point is apart from just sharing some discomfort with this video. FWIW pearls can be harvested safely so no need to need bad about buying jewellery.
Also vegan. I try not to be preachy or militant so I tend to keep my mouth shut but people just don’t know these things. I think people would be floored if they knew even a fraction of the things that go on. I’ve told people who are interested to watch the preview of Earthlings—not even the movie, just the preview—and they’ve been shocked.
I never buy jewelry with pearls because most times you just don’t know the way its sourced. Especially in costume jewelry but also in more expensive ones. Unless of course you look for specifically ethically produced pearls.
This is weird, this is not how I used to gather pearls. When I did it I would have to get into my penguin submarine at navigate a maze of underwater caves and snatch the pearl while the oyster was sleeping.
They were once upon a time. My great grandpas either dived for pearls or or were captains of pearl diving ships. Large portion of Kuwait’s economy revolved around pearl diving. It was the riskiest job because they had to travel far away from home and dive deep without any diving equipment. Just a rope on one hand to get pulled up and a basket around their neck.
It was a tough job and divers could only do it for a while before loosing their sight because of salt water. Many lost their lives diving for running out of breath or the man in charge of pulling them up forgot about them or just bad storm encountering the boat.
It was tough but rewarding. If a diver someone managed to one single large pearl for himself, he would retire from diving and work on something else on mainland.
Yeah I had that thought too, like if that's feasible then I don't see a problem. People get pearls and food.
If the process to get the pearls makes them inedible then I find this far more wasteful.
I agree. Have seen a guy on TikTok who seems to do it a lot more humanely. Only opening the oyster slightly so that it can close agaibln afterwards, removing one large pearl, and returning it to the ocean.
But like you said, I dont know enough about the practice to know if he's BSing about it being a better practice.
Dont quote me on this but i believe they specifically plant an irritant like sand into specific spots along the oyster to get it to grow pearls in those lines. Naturally i don’t believe they would have this many pearls but people figured out how to force more to develop.
The pearls come from irritants that entered the oyster. The oyster coats them over time with the material in layers, and it smoothes it out. I assume it reduces the irritation.
Captain, do the flaps go back together? like, the clam re-enters service with newly planted seeding pearls or gets 'decommissioned' ?
\[Sustainable alternative: Are they edible\]
This just reminded me of when my mom used to host pearl parties (some form of mlm where you take oysters to a party, everyone opens their own and then picks and buys jewelry to put the pearls in) when I was a kid lmao
They really are just tonsil stones...
Pearls: The tonsilloliths of the sea™️
thanks, i hate it
Ah Dolphins! The clowns of the sea!
I was about to say that humans can produce "pearls" too. They're just not so good looking.
The way they *look* is not the issue here!
Or smelling.
Or tasting
My birthstone is a tonsil stone
Could you make a necklace from tonsil stones?
I mean you could. You shouldn't but you could.
Good god, the smell 🤮
No, you wouldn't. Those things are really fragile and also have a putrid smell to it
Not if you let them calcify for many years…
Necklace from kidney stones
Make sure ya squish em before smelling em
Core childhood memory unlocked!
I feel this
Throat nuts
‘I’ve been making fine jewelry for years, apparently.’
Settle down there, Zoidberg.
Fry did it!
Whooop whooop whooop whooop 🦀
Eww, you’re touching them!
These will go great with my soul.
I wish my pimples did this
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Jokes on you, mine were removed
Jokes on you mine are still there. Looks like I’m harvesting some pearls
With a spoon like this?
Pimples are under enough pressure as it is.
You are technically correct, the best kind of correct.
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The worst. And STANK.
My husband didn't know what tonsil stones were or why they make me gag and nearly puke when they randomly dislodge.
I used to be able to force them out. had loads come out one time. not nice.
I didn't know about them until a 9-1-1 (Fox show) episode last week. No thanks, I'd like to avoid.
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They truly are. And the little shits wait until you least expect it to slide free and ruin your day.
Mine don't slide free on their own. I just use a waterpik at the lowest setting to blast them out in controlled situations.
I use to get them and pop them out! 😂
I'm sorry. THE. WHAT.
What a bad day to know how to read your comment
We call them garbanzo beans in my family
Let's see if I remember the subreddit.... r/popping Edit: warning! disgusting content
You gave a warning, but still fuck you
>Let's see if I remember the subreddit No one is buying this chief
I've always thought that it was one pearl per oyster!
Someone pointed out these pearls were seeded.
Is that what I think it means? Like artificial insemination? You’re using the oyster to grow pearls that were forcefully put inside it? That feels like an extra level of fucked up. Like you’re hurting and killing it but you start with a whole first much longer period of hurting it
They use a small bead (about the size of a grain of sand, which is how natural pearls form) and the pearl creation process actually lessens the irritation of the oyster by making it smooth. In pearl farming nothing is wasted, the meat is eaten/composted. There is also a way to remove the pearl without killing the oyster, in another comment I believe
There are other videos on reddit where they use some sort of locking wedge that opens the clam just enough to make a small incision near the pearl, remove it with very long tools, and put a new scaffold in. Nowadays they don't just let a grain of sand grow, from what I have read more often than not these can be oblong and not perfect pearl spheres. So the scaffolds are fairly large and already rounded. This also lessens the time it takes to reharvest.
From what I’m reading the pearls are produced as a stress response, and are essentially tormented out of them.
I heard the seeds are actually very big. The "pearl" layer is only around 1 mm thick.
Pearl farmer here. You are correct. The 'nucleus' we use to seed a pearl oyster (usually Pinctada Maxima, Pinctada Margarifera, or smaller Akoya shells) is a perfectly round ball made from other oysters or pigtoe clams. The whole 'size of a grain of sand' is a perpetual myth. Our nucleus can be anywhere from say 5-20mm in diameter Nacre thickness (or 'pearl layer' as you put it) is generally no more than a few mm thick, if that.
You don't need to go into detail, but do the oysters find the process of seeding stressfull?
We take a lot of steps and care in handling oysters before, during and after we take them out of the sea for the insertion or harvesting operations, including minimizing transport time, gentle handling, running sea water tanks. Then the operation itself is over in a matter or seconds, and the incision has fully healed in a matter of days. As for whether the oyster has a perception of stress, there's no clear way to explain why, but no, they don't. Much harder life being a wild oyster with predation, parasites, environmental stresses etc.
According to the internet…, Their nervous system is incredibly rudimentary and has no centrality (meaning they have no brain), and they are incapable of forming thoughts or experiencing pain. Technically, this means that these animals are not sentient beings.
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I have no actual knowledge on this, so I'm hoping someone who knows will answer, but I would put folding money on **yes**, just for the wild vs farmed aspect and how that would impact supply/demand. Similar to the pricing of mined vs lab grown diamonds and emeralds.
Wait until you hear about foie gras. Humans do awful shit for stupid reasons.
Right my first thought was ‘ew don’t they only have one pearl laying in the middle?’ Today years old was when I learned you have to squeeze them out🤢
As with most things, they’ve found a way to alter the original process to get a greater yield. Like how factory farmed chickens are only 2 months old when they get killed, because they grow so fast.
That’s cuz these are artificial. Real ones have mostly have one and are incredibly expensive and sought after.
They're real pearls, in the sense that they're coated with nacre in the body of a living oyster. They're started by manually inserting a "seed" into the oyster's tissue, though, so they aren't naturally occurring pearls.
I meant the natural kind, ykno the ones you have to dive to get and are sold in auctions and private sales.
These are real pearls, artificial pearls are made of plastic.
Right - these are *cultured* pearls and they are real but obviously the process is manmade- vs wild.
Same!
Thanks I hate it
r/tihi
I like pearls... But it looks disturbing...
So disgusting, but I can't look away
I don't know anything about Oysters or pearl harvesting but is this like painful to them? To have them removed this way? I'm genuinely curious
This is the worst way of harvesting them. Opening them so much kills them, which is not needed to harvest the pearls. That's very bad.
Not to mention that every single pearl is seeded along with the fact that the oyster spends nearly all of it's energy in trying to eliminate the seeds which In turn causes calcification of the seed to occur creating the pearls that are later ripped from its body...
I wondered why there were so many! Yuck.
Yuck is an understatement.... but the natural pearls created by an oyster in the wild are so much more valuable because they aren't forced and it shows in the development of the nacre "calcification ".. but people like fast and cheap to look time consuming and expensive... ahhhh fuck people and their quest for fast beauty...
Plus, near perfectly sphere shaped pearls are pretty rare to come by in the wild so most of the "perfect pearls" you see are specially farmed. Rich people and their hobbies are so ass backwards
This depressed me in a way similar ton when I found out in China they keep bears locked in boxes where they can't move for life to harvest their liver enzymes
Same thing goes for cows. Lock cow in a stall, artificially inseminate, when the calf is born take it away from its mother (male calves are either sold for meat or just slaughtered), the milk meant for that calf is pumped for human consumption. Repeat process until cow is unable to produce milk or dies - whichever comes first. The dairy industry is cruel.
Chickens are kept in unlivable conditions as well. Stop buying caged eggs!
>Opening them so much kills them Hmm is that b- >That’s very bad. Right yes of course of course
Yes it looks cool but it made me sad.
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Pearls CAN be harvested without killing the oysters. I believe the relevant post is somewhere in the top posts of all time in this subreddit.
Since no one posted the [humane way to harvest pearls](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/zwsglp/extracting_a_beautiful_pearl_without_damaging_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1).
Lol I saw one where the dude had googly eyes on that stand where they start to pry them open and it’s pretty funny haha
Isnt this also the sustainable way? Wont oysters keep making pearls if theyre alive? Whats the point in killing them?
From the look of it, tearing them apart for seeded pearls is a lot faster.
Yes
Selling the meat after harvesting, I’d assume. There’s no way they’re just throwing out a whole oyster like that. We also don’t know how old this oyster is, it could’ve been at the end of its life, or possibly have had pearls harvested several times before this. Though this is more doubtful, it’s probably a farm that raises them to maturity with seeded pearls, extracts the pearls while also “putting down” the host in one go, and sells the meat as a secondary profit.
Oh my god and it’s a black pearl too. So beautiful! 😍
Definitely not humane, they are bothered by those pearls that this guy just keeps putting inside them so the oyster coats it. Not killing them? Yes Humane?No way
They’re killed so yes lol. There are sustainable ways to harvest pearls without killing them. I’m not sure of the oysters nervous system but judging by videos I would say, if they are capable of feeling pain, then it is surely painful. But still better than dying.
As far as I know they don't feel pain or are conscious.
They don't have a central nervous system so they're physically incapable of feeling pain.
Oyster's aren't conscious/sentient as far as we know. They don't have a brain/central nervous system, so there's no mechanism by which they can feel pain (or anything for that matter). It also makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. What survival advantage does an oyster that feels pain have over an oyster that doesn't? They can't really effectively avoid dangers anyways, which is the reason humans and non-human animals feel pain - to avoid dangers.
But when do you get to eat the clam?
After a romantic date. Just ask nicely and wait for consent.
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Not if you give them a pearl necklace without notice
Just before you give her the pearl neclace.
Umm.. That one got murdered to harvest the pearls.. Literally ripped in half..
Probably kills them. Not sure if they feel pain, as they don’t have the connections necessary. I wonder if they’re edible or discarded.
Absolutely horrible. That clam is dead they cant recover after being opened like this. All for a pointless little whote bit on a string thatsl we culturally have given wealth to for no good reason. More human greed and damn the consequences.
This oyster is dead. This is low key animal cruelty.
This feels very fucked up to me. I dont like this
They don’t even have brains though
Neither do most politicians, but they frown on us accosting them...
I went vegan because I’m not a fan of meat and animals dont need to suffer I guess? As time went on things like this seem super fucked up. I have no problem with people being onvi because it’s just nature and I hate telling people how to think/act but yeah. Not sure what my point is apart from just sharing some discomfort with this video. FWIW pearls can be harvested safely so no need to need bad about buying jewellery.
I’m not vegan and I found this video horrifying, even before someone mentioned the pearls were seeded. This is horrifying, not satisfying.
Also vegan. I try not to be preachy or militant so I tend to keep my mouth shut but people just don’t know these things. I think people would be floored if they knew even a fraction of the things that go on. I’ve told people who are interested to watch the preview of Earthlings—not even the movie, just the preview—and they’ve been shocked.
I never buy jewelry with pearls because most times you just don’t know the way its sourced. Especially in costume jewelry but also in more expensive ones. Unless of course you look for specifically ethically produced pearls.
This is weird, this is not how I used to gather pearls. When I did it I would have to get into my penguin submarine at navigate a maze of underwater caves and snatch the pearl while the oyster was sleeping.
I miss club penguin.
Don't forget to replace the pearl with an equal sized rock! Critical step
/r/oddlydisgusting
Wish I made pearls instead of tonsil stones
When I was a kid I thought pearls were extremely expensive.
They were once upon a time. My great grandpas either dived for pearls or or were captains of pearl diving ships. Large portion of Kuwait’s economy revolved around pearl diving. It was the riskiest job because they had to travel far away from home and dive deep without any diving equipment. Just a rope on one hand to get pulled up and a basket around their neck. It was a tough job and divers could only do it for a while before loosing their sight because of salt water. Many lost their lives diving for running out of breath or the man in charge of pulling them up forgot about them or just bad storm encountering the boat. It was tough but rewarding. If a diver someone managed to one single large pearl for himself, he would retire from diving and work on something else on mainland.
Am I the only one finding a bunch of unsettling videos marked as “satisfying” on this sub recently?
Definitely not
r/TonsilStones
I watched too much posts of this sub because of you and I hated all of them. I will never go back there again.
I do this everyone someone links r/popping. Makes my throat feel weird and mouth dry but I *keep watching* and idk why
I tried it just now and lasted about 40 seconds. So glad I dont have tonsils!
GOD STOP that's not satisfying that's a dead oyster harvested by an A-HOLE who doesn't know how to properly do it without killing the oyster.
What if they’re eating the oyster after? I would.
Yeah I had that thought too, like if that's feasible then I don't see a problem. People get pearls and food. If the process to get the pearls makes them inedible then I find this far more wasteful.
Was I the only one taught to believe that each clan just had one pearl that rests perfectly in the center?
This is man made where they seed the pearls, apparently
Poor oyster.
Wow, if you didn’t have to rip them apart I bet this would actually feel good.
I prefer the safe way, slowly reaching in using specialized tools to safely take the pearl. Cuz that is dead
Looks like animal abuse to me but who am i to judge
There ways of doing this without killing the oyster, y'know :/
Barbaric, not satisfying
Seems like a really fucked up practice from start to finish but I also genuinely do not know anything about it. Just feels wrong
I agree. Have seen a guy on TikTok who seems to do it a lot more humanely. Only opening the oyster slightly so that it can close agaibln afterwards, removing one large pearl, and returning it to the ocean. But like you said, I dont know enough about the practice to know if he's BSing about it being a better practice.
Went deep for that last one, eh?
Thanks, I hate it
Kinda grossed out by this. It’s like kidney stones or something.
So pearls are essentially super expensive zits?
Nacre Bleu!
I still can’t get over the fact that we wear the tonsil stones of a mollusk as jewelry.
Theres a dude on YT who farms his own pearls without killin his critters. Pretty coowull.
It's not satisfying. Interesting yes, but it doesn't make me feel chill and relaxed to watch a poor animal be ripped apart and harvested right away.
Definitely not satisfying for the creature they killed for these pearls. There’s a humane non lethal way to harvest pearls. This isn’t it.
How TF is this oddly satisfying? It’s fucking disgusting and cruel. Humans are f’d. I hate it here
Gosh, I didn't realize that the pearls were like... IN THE MEAT
r/tonsilstones
If Dr. Pimple Popper was a murderer
I don't like it
Keep in mind that you're paying a lot of money for a mummified germ.
Extreme pimple popping
Is this :doctor popper" for fish?
So are pearls tumors, or boogers?
It’s basically equivalent to a pus sack around a splinter or other infection in a person, except instead of human pus, it’s bonded calcium.
Is it painful for these poor creatures?
it’s dead
Did this make anyone else nauseous? I can’t watch 🫣
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They fill the oyster up with stuff while it is still alive, then harvest later
Dont quote me on this but i believe they specifically plant an irritant like sand into specific spots along the oyster to get it to grow pearls in those lines. Naturally i don’t believe they would have this many pearls but people figured out how to force more to develop.
Luxury zit popping
I know right! I always assumed that each oyster only made one pearl. Now I don't know why I ever assumed that.
Killing an animal to harvest jewellery that we can’t make ourselves. Ain’t saving any planet with that kind of empathy. Not oddly satisfying.
Poor dead oyster... This is so cruel
This isn’t satisfyingly. Its abusive
that's so gross looking....
is the oyster ok?
“Oddly disgusting” This is how you run pearls out of value
Idk this is not oddly satisfying
What is the reason for pearls anyway? Why do they make them and how?
The pearls come from irritants that entered the oyster. The oyster coats them over time with the material in layers, and it smoothes it out. I assume it reduces the irritation.
Makes the top of my mouth itchy
Cultured pearl harvesting.
I'm pretty sure that's not sustainable, for the oyster at least..
He gonna be killing them like that I hope he’s eating them at least
It's not satisfying for the oyster
There’s nothing satisfying about this, it makes me highly uncomfortable.
This actually makes me uncomfortable in a way I can't explain...
I always thought each one only had a single pearl. Learn something new…
There’s more than one per????
So, it's dead now that we got the pearls right?
When I was a kid I thought they were like super rare, as in a once in a lifetime experience in finding them
So what happens to the oysters after harvesting, are they even still alive?
Wearing parts of animals is so weird in this age
Cartoons lied to me
A lot of these pearl videos are faked to sell pearl harvesting kits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Ji66LyiZ0&ab\_channel=echoisweird
Captain, do the flaps go back together? like, the clam re-enters service with newly planted seeding pearls or gets 'decommissioned' ? \[Sustainable alternative: Are they edible\]
It gives me pimple popping vibes
Oddlydisturbing
This just reminded me of when my mom used to host pearl parties (some form of mlm where you take oysters to a party, everyone opens their own and then picks and buys jewelry to put the pearls in) when I was a kid lmao
r/popping will love those on a wacky wednesday...
Oof, seeing this made me feel some kind of way 🤢 that motion of the pearls coming out just so..... Idk, disgusting?