PERDUR
PERDUR
Sustainable pearl-development in French Polynesia
With a 80 millions euros turnover in 2003, pearl-forming remains the 2nd French aquaculture activity. After tourism, it is the French Polynesia 2nd resource with over 800 companies employing more than 2000 people. In 20 years, it allowed the Tuamotu Archipelago population to double when it was nearing desertion.
Applied research didn’t appear as a basic need during the pearl-forming expansion, but the last couple of years crisis changed the situation. Even if the current concern turns are around marketing problems, many professionals are realizing research becomes an absolute necessary, moreover in a growing competitive environment.
In this context, a complete and applied research has been engaged since 2002 by the project partners with the financial support of the Polynesian State services. The PERDUR project’s aim is the pursue long term actions to provide French Polynesia with methods to secure and perpetuate production as well as tools to increase profitability.
- Perpetuate resources
- Development of spat collection rationalizing through larva’s ecology better knowledge.
- Pursuit of genetic resources tracking and development of protection methods, especially by gamete cryo-conservation.
- Improve the pearl’s quality
- Artificial reproduction control and cross supervision in order to select high performance pearl oysters.
- Knowledge of pearl’s color genetic determination.
- Grafts return optimization.
- Understanding of the mechanisms leading to the pearl’s surface flaw appearance.
- Prevent health risks
- In this bio-security context, we will propose control methods for spat transfer between islands and we will estimate the “telecoptage” development (larva’s hatchery transfer at the fixing time).
- Manage lagoons’ rationally
