Shiny pearls Pearls are produced by mussels and oysters in response to irritation. Natural pearls form around a piece of grit that gets between the oyster’s shell and its skin (mantle). Tissues from the mantle surround the grit to produce mother-of-pearl layers. Pearls are cultivated Shell can by inserting particles into a Salt pans clam, along with some skin close to protect When seawater evaporates, a salt-crystal from another clam. Many crust is left behind. Large quantities of kinds of clams produce itself from predators sea salt are produced by flooding pearls, but only those with shallow ponds (pans) with shiny, inner layers to the seawater and letting the water shell make shiny pearls. evaporate in the hot sun. Sea salt is produced in places with warm weather and little rain. The salt in seawater is mostly sodium chloride, but there is also sulphate, Double strand magnesium, of blue pearls calcium, and potassium. Gloves can be made Noble pen shell from byssus grows to 2 ft threads of (60 cm) in length noble pen shell Tapered shell is brittle Silver cross inlaid with abalone shell Hole to expel water and waste Byssus threads made by shell to anchor it to the seabed Golden threads The pen shell produces a thick mat Rainbow hues of byssus threads to anchor it in the Inside an abalone soft seabed of the Mediterranean. shell are all the colors These threads were once collected, of the rainbow. The heavy spun into fine, golden thread, and shell’s mother-of-pearl is used then woven into cloth. Some say the to make jewellery and buttons. cloth may have started the legend of These shells are popular with New the golden fleece of Ancient Greek Zealand’s Maoris. Abalones are also eaten. mythology, where the fleece was With a muscular foot that clings to the seabed, that of a winged ram. the shells have to be