Jewelmer Pearl Safari

As an environmentalist, we're well aware of what's going on on a daily basis, just to the terra, but of course to the oceans, and one of the greatest indicators of a thriving ecosystem is of course the maturity and the production of pearls. Hi, I'm Jacques-Christophe Branelec, and I'm a pearl farmer at Jewelmer. Coming here, you see that it's more than just about the gem. It's about taking care of the staff, it's about education, teaching everyone that works here just how important it is to take care of the environment, to take care of each other. So it's more than just a company, it's really a philosophy. Every single moment has surprised us. The genuineness of everybody, everyone being real, the fact that it wasn't a company, it was a family. This trip has changed me. I think it's given me a whole new appreciation for the pearl as a gem. I mean, before I thought, okay, you know, there's pearls, there's diamonds, there's sapphires and everything, but now to see how much hard work, love and energy goes into making a pearl, and how it's so representative of a nice healthy environment, that it's now my favorite gem. So guys, welcome to the hatchery. This is Doris, who's the mother of all oysters. So she's going to actually teach you a little bit about the process. So when they talk about mother of pearl, you're literally the mother of pearl. Again, welcome to the hatchery. So our primary objective here is to produce oysters. So the gold is like... It's a recessive gene. Yeah, exactly. So it's like a red hair, blue eyes kind of thing. So you have to find all the red hair, blue eyes and try to... Yeah, nice. Wow. Unicorns. Yes, exactly. Do golden south deep pearls, do they happen in nature? I mean, naturally? They can, but they're extremely... Yeah. Pearl Farm can filter about 18 billion gallons of water per day. Damn. So it really needs to clean that, because these are filter feeders. Yeah. So it cleans the water and it also gets its nutrients from the water. Major thing that surprised me was just the vastness and the meticulousness and the scope of what is done here to produce one pearl. All these kids are active. Yeah, okay. Oh my god, you gotta stop feeding them sugar. I mean, this is what I mean, Jacques has mentioned that these are bio generators. They just collect so much ocean life and they create artificial reefs. And I mean, obviously around the Philippines, we need more reefs. I mean, reefs are dying, not just in the Philippines, but all around the world. And I love the fact that what Juma has done is taken that knowledge and now developed artificial reefs around this area. I love how they use every single part of the oyster throughout the process. So all the stuff that we're cleaning off, all the parasites and everything, organic material. So they take that, they collect it, they dry it out, they crush it up, and they use it as fertilizer. Acceptable? No, still too hairy. Okay, it looks like it needs to look like your head. Okay, got it. Love you. If you think about it, there's so many things that are happening in harmony and in symbiosis with this organism. So we breed some oysters to be donuts and others to be muck. So basically the process he's doing is he's inserting, making a decision in the gonad, which is a reproductive organ, inserting a nucleus together with the live tissue, which if successful, the live tissue will attach to the nucleus and then create a pearl sac. And that pearl sac will every day lay about five to seven layers of arachnid crystals. Every mistake or mishandling or change in environment is one step away from the perfect pearl. You can never recover. I did not expect that much growth. It was unbelievable. There was, I mean, we're finding nudibranchs and crabs and just all these little soft corals and hard corals and barnacles and I was amazed. I was like, wow, okay, these guys must have been down here for a while. How long have they been down there? That's 15 days. That's 15 days? Oh my god, that's incredible. And what's crazy too, every oyster is accounted for. They probably have their own ID already at that stage, right? At that level. The oysters, a lot of them were very relaxed because they were open and even when I was like, you know, brushing them, they didn't stay open. It just tells you the energy of this place too. The product is a product of just all the things aligned, you know. Exactly. Let's hope it's a good harvest. Let's go see it. All right, they're about to give birth. That's a big one. Really? That looks perfect to me. That looks pretty good. That looks pretty darn good. And you know, Mark, I love the fact that the pearl finally, since 1996, got declared the national gem of the Philippines. So deservedly so. Absolutely. These golden South Sea pearls are the culmination of so much love, care, and dedication by the Filipino people, not only amongst themselves, but also in harmony with nature. The only way you're going to get this kind of perfection is if you take care of the environment and then you work together as a people. So it's a fantastic representation of the Filipino spirit, love, and ingenuity, and to care for the environment. Beautiful things are made when we work together. Wow, the immersion with the community. It's great to see what it is that they're doing for the local community. They're really helping. They're actively helping. They're teaching the local community how to better themselves, teaching them skills, teaching them organic farming, you know, teaching them how to make handicrafts, teaching them how to take care of themselves. Now, this is very, very important. They don't need to do this, but they choose to do this, and the community themselves are fun. They're really, really game, you know, like, in fact, they were teaching us stuff. I knew that pearl farm production was probably not going to harm the environment too much because they need good conditions, but to see all of the steps that go into the production and just how much it helps and actually improves the environment, that was a surprise for me. In this millennial world that we live in, you know, loyalty is very hard to find nowadays, and people from the workplace, there's such a high turnover rate, you know. You come here, and it's like the old days, you know. You meet people, and they say, yeah, I've been working here 15 years. I've been working here 25 years. I've been working here 30 years, and they look young, by the way. They look really young, so they must be happy with what they're doing. For me, being a pearl ambassador is also being an ambassador for the environment, and that, for me, touches my heart. Thank you, children. Pearl, it's not on the 50-peso bill. It's not on the 100-peso bill. It's not on the 500-peso bill. It's on the thousand-peso bill, the highest denomination in the Philippines. I'm so proud to be Kanoy, and, you know, the pearl, the pearl is the perfect gem that represents the Philippines, talaga. You know, it is the culmination of hard work, of togetherness, of the environment and people working together, and you know what? You don't know if you're gonna get something perfect, but it's that hope that you will get something, you know. That's the pride and the spirit of the Pinoy.