Are Pearls Ethical and Sustainable?

Whether a pearl was produced responsibly depends on what kind of pearl it is, where it came from and how the farm or fishery is run. This page sets out what the evidence shows, the benefits as well as the harms, and what CIBJO, the international jewelry confederation, suggests asking.

What the words mean#

Claims about pearls are easy to make and hard to check. CIBJO’s 2025 Blue List gives the claim words set meanings: “responsible” means meeting baseline international standards, “ethical” means also following current best practice on social responsibilities, and “sustainable” means providing lasting socio-economic benefits, environmental protection and longevity.² Its guide notes that traceability for pearls is still emerging, and that the first step in judging a pearl’s impact is to know its type and origin: natural or cultured, saltwater or freshwater.²

Can help the water

• Pearl oysters filter particles from the water
• They take up nitrogen, phosphorus and metals
• Farms need clean water, so farmers have a reason to protect it

Can harm it

• Intensive farming that adds phosphates to ponds has polluted water in some areas
• Degrading farm gear can release chemicals and microplastics
• Overstocked farms can suffer disease

Wild pearl beds

• Thousands of years of fishing emptied many beds
• Some wild fisheries now work to quotas

Text version of this diagram

Three panels. Can help the water: an open pearl oyster draws in water that carries small particles. Pearl oysters filter particles from the water and take up nitrogen, phosphorus and metals, and farms need clean water, which gives farmers a reason to protect it. Can harm it: a pipe pours into a pond, and a cloud of particles spreads through the water. Intensive freshwater farming that adds phosphates to the water has polluted water in some areas, degrading farm equipment can release chemicals and microplastics, and overstocked farms can suffer disease. Wild pearl beds: a seabed with a few oysters left and dashed outlines where others used to be. Thousands of years of pearl fishing emptied many beds, and some wild fisheries now work under quotas.

How pearl farming can help the water#

Pearl oysters are filter feeders. A pearl oyster can filter up to about 22 liters of water an hour, removing particles, and pearl oysters and mussels take up nitrogen, phosphorus, metals and other pollutants.¹ One study found that for each tonne of Akoya pearl oysters harvested, 7.4 kg of nitrogen, 0.5 kg of phosphorus and up to 0.7 kg of metals were removed from the water.¹

Farms also depend on clean water, which gives farmers a reason to protect it. CIBJO’s guide makes that point, and adds that pearl farms create jobs, often in remote places.²

Where pearl farming does harm#

Intensive farming has costs. In China, intensive freshwater farming that adds phosphates to the water to feed the mussels has caused severe pollution of water tables in some areas.² Researchers at the University of Queensland and the University of Basel reported in 2013 that freshwater ponds are often enriched with manure or animal waste to grow algae for the mussels, and that pearl mussel farming was temporarily banned in Hubei province in 2007 over the levels of manure and fertilizer used.⁶

Pollution from other industries hurts pearl farms too. The same researchers cite a 2003 United Nations Environment Programme study of China’s Beibu region, where pearl output fell from 1.25 kg per 10,000 shells in 1974 to 0.175 kg in 1999, mainly because of worse water.⁶

Saltwater farms face their own problems. In French Polynesia’s semi-enclosed lagoons, chemicals and microplastics from degrading farm equipment can affect oyster survival and pearl quality, and the territory has set ecological ceilings for each pearl-growing island since 2017 and production quotas since 2024.² A review of the industry adds that overstocked farms can run short of nutrients and suffer ecological deterioration and disease outbreaks.¹ And CIBJO’s guide warns that ocean acidification makes it harder for shellfish to build their shells, and for pearls to grow.²

Wild pearl beds#

Natural pearls come from wild mollusks, and the search for them has emptied pearl beds. GIA notes that thousands of years of pearl fishing decimated the natural pearl beds.⁷ In Mexico, where 200,000 to 500,000 oysters a year were being harvested by the early 1900s, the populations were depleted and the government closed the fishery in 1940.² Europe’s river pearl mussel, Margaritifera margaritifera, was listed as endangered in the IUCN’s 1996 Red Data Book, and pearl fishing in UK rivers has been banned since 1989.²

Some wild fisheries are now closely managed. In Western Australia, divers collect wild Pinctada maxima oysters under a yearly quota, from 500,000 to 1.5 million oysters, shared by 14 licence holders, with observers on pearling vessels.⁵ In 2017 the fishery became the first wild pearl fishery to earn Marine Stewardship Council certification, after an 18-month assessment.³ In Bahrain, whose pearl beds UNESCO made a World Heritage site in 2012, the national pearl institute DANAT works with the authorities to monitor the beds and suspends diving in some areas from time to time to let them recover.²

The oysters#

Pearls are animal products. Cultured pearl grafting uses a piece of mantle tissue from a sacrificed donor oyster, inserted with a bead into the host.⁴ A host oyster isn’t always killed when its pearl is taken: in Western Australia good oysters may be seeded several times, each pearl larger than the one before,⁵ and a South Sea oyster can produce up to four pearls in all.¹ Pearl oyster meat is also sold as food.⁵

Not every grafted oyster survives. A review of pearl farming reports that, in general, fewer than 70% of oysters survive the bead operation, and 30% to 40% of those reject the bead.¹ Farms have reason to keep oysters healthy: stress can blemish a pearl, so Western Australian farmers aim to keep their oysters stress-free and regularly clean off parasites.⁵

Whether that is acceptable is a personal judgment. The Vegan Society, for example, defines veganism as seeking to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.⁸

The people#

Pearling has a hard history. The V&A’s 2013 pearl exhibition described the often dangerous working methods of pearl divers.⁹ Today CIBJO’s guide suggests asking suppliers whether they have policies against modern slavery, harassment and bullying, health and safety and equal-pay policies, and systems against bribery and corruption.²

Questions to ask#

CIBJO’s guide suggests asking a supplier questions like these:²

• What type of pearl is it, and where was it grown or found?
• Does the farm or fishery have an environmental management system or code of practice?
• Has it had an independent ecological assessment or life cycle assessment?
• Does it monitor for invasive species and disease, and protect the area where it works?
• Does it track its greenhouse gas emissions?
• What policies does it have on labor, health and safety, and corruption?

Your supplier may not know every answer yet, the guide notes, but asking helps build a traceable market.² The page how pearl farms work explains how cultured pearls are grown.