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The pearl culture industry is in crisis after millions of oysters inexplicably died. The loss, estimated at 306 million yen ($2.8 million) to date in Ehime Prefecture alone, has not only dealt a savage blow to farms in top-producing prefectures but raised fears that aging farmers may quit the bu...Mabe Pearl or Cultured Blister? A pearl is a concretion of biomineralized aragonite and/or calcite with minor organic matter (conchiolin) produced inside a pearl sac in the interior of marine or freshwater molluscs. A cultured pearl is basically the same, but formed with human intervention inside...Mother-of-pearl has been used since pre-historic times for adornment. In the modern ages, it was also artistically used in marquetry, gaming chips, devotional artefacts, as a bead for the cultured pearl industry but also in the button industry, being rather popular before plastics came into actio...