6841 Like I said, there’s great numbers of fish here. The Scissor-tal Sergeants are familiar but the silver fish with orange and yellow highlights I don’t recognize.
6846 A parrotfish of some species, nibbling away at the coral.
6875 The obvious fish in the center I’m not sure of either. At the left in the crevice you can see a brown fish with blue fins and dots on its body. I’m not having much luck here recognizing species. Could be a grouper.
6877 Raccoon Butterflyfish of some sort, against green coral.
6892 I think this is a Wrasse of some type. There are lots of yellow wrasses.
Nov 25 – Rangiroa, Palliser Group of the Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia. Rangiroa means ‘vast sky’ in Tuamotuan and it’s the largest atoll in the Tuamotu Islands as well as one of the largest in the world. It ranks about third. It’s part of the Palliser group. Avatoru, where we are anchoring is located in northern part of the atoll. Rangiroa has about 415 motus, islets and sandbars that have an area of about 65 square miles. There are approximately one hundred narrow passages, they call hoa, in the circle of land that makes up the atoll. The atoll’s lagoon is about 50 miles long and ranges from 3 to 20 miles wide. The landmasses range from 300 to 550 yards wide. The total circumference of the landmasses around the lagoon is about 124 miles. The lagoon has a maximum depth of 120 feet and covers 560 square miles. Because it’s so shallow, the currents that come in and out through the passes combined with the winds sometimes create interior storms.
The population of the atoll is about 2,500. Its main villages are Avatoru and Tiputa on neighboring islands. All the other villages are under 500. They are separated by the major Tiputa Pass the way we entered and exited the lagoon. Rangiroa is a major underwater diving destination because of its lagoon's clear blue water and exceptionally diverse marine fauna.
It is believed the first people arrived on Rangiroa around the 900AD. The first recorded Europeans to arrive to Rangiroa were Dutch explorers Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten during their 1615-1616 Pacific journey. During the 1950s, the economy of Rangiroa was driven by fishing and the production of copra. The inauguration of the Rangiroa Airport in 1965 allowed rapid development of the tourism industry as underwater diving facilities and hotels were built.
Today we are going snorkeling again and then to visit a pearl farm. The islands do not appear to be part of an atoll. The lagoon is so big that it has its own horizon. You can see the islands near you but if you are on a side near the middle, you can’t see islands on any of the other three sides. We will be swimming near the Tuputa Pass in an area called The Aquarium.
First up, into the water. A short ride on the tender got us to the pier. There was a man in a racing outrigger paddling alongside the tender trying to catch a ride on the wake. Unfortunately, the tenders go so slow that there’s no wake to ride and not even something to race as he could easily outpace us. At least he got a workout. He accompanied every tender leaving the boat and returned beside the new one coming in. Despite the lack of competition or the ability to surf with us he seemed to be enjoying himself, waiving and smiling at each tender load of tourists.
Once we were on the pier is was just a short walk to the dive boat and off we sped. Our driver/guide told us to stay on one side of the boat when we were in the water. The reef is very close to the current created by the tidal flow and since the tide was going out, he didn’t want us to be caught in the tidal flow and race through the pass into the open ocean. Actually none of us wanted that either. Once we were in the water it was pretty clear to see that his request was easy to follow as the reef was in sheltered water away from the current. From the look of the surface water, you would have had to swim quite a way over barren sandy bottom to get into the current. Still I think he was wise to warn us, as there’s no telling what some people will do.
I wish the tide had been further out because the bottom was fairly deep over most of the reef. Not very good for pictures as the colors are mostly green after a few feet of water separates you from your subject. Still there was a plentiful supply of live coral and more fish than I’ve encountered anywhere on this trip. Quantity wise that is. There were large groups of fish patrolling the reef, scissortail sergeants, Raccoon Butterflyfish and a fish I don’t recognize. Not as much diversity as in Bora Bora but lots of fish. I did see some parrotfish nibbling on the coral. I hadn’t seen any of them before on this trip. I also saw a boxfish or puffer and several other fish that I’m not sure I know the exact species, one was a triggerfish.
The snorkeling was great but soon it was time to head to the pier. Our guide asked us if we wanted to try to find the dolphins that he’s seen that morning. To do that we had to go out through the Tuputa Pass into the open water. We all said that we’d like to take a look so out he went. There was quite a bit of swell and some waves on top so the ride was up and down once we were outside the protection of the reef. We did manage to find two of the dolphins but they quickly grew bored with us and swam off. Our guide had to be careful turning the boat around to head back in because if he was caught on the side of the swell with a wave on top it could broach us. His seamanship skills were excellent and he turned us back through the slot and into the lagoon without incident.
Back at the pier we took the tender back to the ship for lunch. I didn’t see anywhere near the pier to get even a snack. After lunch, it was back on the tender for another ride in to the island again accompanied by our outrigger racer #22. I guess he’s been doing that all day.
We boarded a bus heading out to a pearl farm. I’m going just to ride around the island a bit and the farm visit should be interesting. We haven’t visited a working pearl farm. The drive along the island was interesting. On one side, you have the ocean and on the other side the lagoon, both easily seen almost all the time. We passed the airport just after a mid-sized turbo prop Tahitian Airlines plane landed and we could see the passengers heading down the stairs and across the apron to the terminal. We also passed the atoll’s college and satellite telecommunications station.
After about a 25-minute drive we arrived at Gauguin’s Pearl, the largest pearl farm on the atoll. The owner met us at the bus and took us to a pavilion where he’s set up to explain the pearl farming process. He had some sample oyster shells on display as well as the methods for hanging them in the water. He showed us the beads they use for seeding and the strips of mantle they put in to provide the DNA for the pearl sack. He demonstrated how far they could open the oyster’s shell to work inside it. If they open it too far the oyster is damaged or the shell may break and that’s the end of that oyster.
Black pearls are now a big business on the atoll. Technically, they are not black at all but come in a variety of colors from almost black to almost white. I like the pale blue and green ones best but there’s a golden color, called Champaign, which is very rare and beautiful.
Mikimoto developed the process of growing cultured pearls in Japan and they use essentially the same technique here with a few adaptations. A bead made from pure nacre is placed in a black tip oyster along with a slice of mantle taken from another pearl oyster. This slice will form a skin around the bead quickly and that will deposit mother of pearl on the bead. The odd thing is that no local oysters have shells thick enough to make a decent sized bead so the beads are made from oysters in Louisiana that have very thick shells. It’s actually an allergic reaction to the foreign matter and the skin and mother of pearl is a rejection response. It takes 3 years for an oyster to get large enough to ‘seed’ and the development of the pearl takes another 2 years. At that time, the oysters are opened just a bit and the pearl removed. If it’s a good pearl, round with good color, they put in a larger seed ball and let the oyster go another 2 years. This only happens in about 5% of the oysters. After the additional two years if the larger pearl is good when they remove it, they put in an even larger ball and close the factory to go celebrate at the local bar. This third level is a very rare event. Even though they start with a perfect, round bead, only 20% of the pearls will be perfectly round at the first harvest, the second and third are about the same percentage but since color is also a factor you get in the end you’re talking about 1 or 2 in hundreds of thousands.
They employ more than 50 local workers. This has a big impact on the economy of an atoll with only about 2,000 people. There’s a school for pearl farming and a research center on pearl oysters here. It’s the center of black pearl farming.
The process goes like this. The oysters that are ready to be harvested are collected by a boat and brought to the work area where they are hung in narrow pools with circulating seawater to keep them in good shape. The strings are brought into the shed one at a time. The first worker cleans the shell of all the exterior growth with a large knife. He puts it into a box where the next person pries the shell open about a quarter inch and puts a wooden wedge into it to keep it open. This gives the oyster time to relax in that position so the next man can insert his spreader, removes the wooden wedge and opens the shell about three-quarters of an inch (about 2cm according to the owner). He the uses long thin tools much like a dentist’s, to reach in and harvest the pearl. He washes and inspects the pearl and places it in a water-filled container. If the pearl is round and good color, he inserts the larger bead for the second harvest, removes his spreader and places the oyster in another box. From there it goes back to the other side of the shop to be tied onto a new line to put into the tanks and await its trip back out into the lagoon to the farm site.
Another man in the same shed as the harvester was seeding new oysters for their first pearl. The only difference between the two is that this man puts in a seed pellet and a piece of matrix to provide the DNA. The harvester only has to put in the larger seed because the DNA from the initial matrix has already affixed itself to the pearl sack.
The oysters can only be out of the water for 20 minutes so from cleaning to rehanging in the pools must not exceed that time limit. The stringers use a different color string for the oysters of each seeder or harvester. That’s so they know who performed the seeding in case there are problems or unusual successes. After we observed the process, the owner invited us inside to see some of his products. The product is closely controlled. All newly harvested pearls are sent to government graders that measure them and determine the shape and grade information for each pearl. In general, the shapes they use here are round, semi-round, baroque, semi-baroque and circled, listed in order of desirability. The grades are A through D. In A less than 10% of its surface is flawed, B is 10-30%, C is 30-60 and D is over 60%. These D grade pearls are often sent to carvers who etch designs or pictures into the pearl increasing its value.
He had hundreds of pearl in small boxes by shape, grade and color. The A+, less than 5% of the surface flawed, round pearls were the most expensive and the large ones or those with rare colors were downright outrageous. A 20mm, green, round A+ was the most expensive at over $100,000.
Not much is wasted. The oyster meat is edible and served in restaurants on the island. The shells are purchased by a Chinese firm that makes buttons out of them.
The species of oyster they use is protected by law and the only way they are able to get new oysters is to hang these bottlebrush like affairs in the water during spawning season. The oyster larvae that are caught in the brushes are theirs to use but any that make it to the ocean floor are protected. As I mentioned before, from the time they catch them it’s about three years until they are ready for the first seeding.
Rangiroa has another rarity. It has vineyards. No other place in the world does. The vines grow on the edge of a lagoon beside coconuts, and produce two harvests per year. The winery is located in the heart of the village of Avatoru near where we are docked and the grapes are brought to the winery by boat. This is also unique. The vineyards were started in 1992 when testing began to see which grapes could adjust to the area. The vineyard is Domaine Dominique Auroy. Rangiroa was selected for very good reasons, no grapevine pests and the fact that it’s close to Tahiti.
Two important sites on the atoll are the Blue Lagoon, which is a smaller lagoon formed on the southwestern edge of Rangiroa and the Pink Sands. These are sandbars located on the southeastern portion of Rangiroa.
It was a very interesting and informative visit. Fortunately, we purchased a silver-green-blue pearl on Bora Bora in 1991 and Diana is pleased with the pendant we had it made into so she doesn’t want another. I’ll say this, the prices were much lower in 1991.
Soon it was back to the ship.
Our entertainment was the ship’s cast in an encore of ‘Take a Bow’. I like it the first time and as I said before, they are improving with each performance. They started out good and now they are better.
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