WPLN News Archive; Tennessee Mussels (Todd Jarrell) 7 1 03; News Archive 4/1/03-7/1/03

the sun drenched south pacific shores of the cook islands like tahiti to the southeast or romantic an exotic import because polynesia is a legendary black coal country but while a small percentage of the south pacific and the world's annual poll trump is naturally by far most pearls are cultured a partnership of man and nature former president of the cook islands probe yield june bob ney points out the difference youth at home where no human hand cuts that and the upi would have been doing back in the middle of a protocol will happen the pri which could be treated humanely and five the japanese pioneered culturing late in the nineteenth century by surgically implanting mollusks with seeds called nuclei and one to three years the mollusks covered the nuclei would make or the secretion that forms the shells lustrous interior commonly called mother of pearl the process is secret but where ever cultured prose come from

where a tongue though hong kong indonesia australia tokyo or to heat but mays says they have one common link at you know low key role in the activity obama will be quite amazed when i told them when they had no idea that's right it turns out the ideal nuclei are freshwater muscle cells that grow here spiny mosul the role rabbits foot structural though purple war ii back flat floater the cumberland monkey faced bird wayne pearly marshall fund accused operates the tennessee first word are pro hormone kentucky lake in dayton county i'd begun by famed pearl cultivate or john the congress the farm is the only one of its kind in north america supporting thousands of mussels all quietly growing pearls we have a lot of minerals in this candy so the minerals that are in the subsoil trickle into the water which gives us a good balance of ph

bubbly these mussels really enjoy that water is that's all they do is open their mouth filter state adapt in this muscle friendly habitat sales growth thick and strong and for this tennessee has become the center of the nucleus if you will of the culture of pro market worldwide supplying up to ninety percent of all cell exported for implants are less so but a friend sits in the wheel house of his workload more to a tree along the grassy sure he is the tennessee river man and since nineteen sixty six has covered many miles on the river's shifting bottom diving for muscles though he makes it sound easy deep in the river it is anything but a few walkers of a lot closer than that no ads on half the satellite at at about forty four but we have our land out a new slides smaller

plan that you can say about israel hazards abound in the dark arms of the river boat traffic submerged trees in fencing or tangled fishing hooks in line divers numbers fluctuate was shell prices which have ranged from sixty cents to seven dollars a pound in just the last few years high prices encourage poaching putting pressure on certain muscles species some of which are now endangered they're from ohio two thousand divers in nineteen ninety a less than two hundred will renew their state licensed the sheer as demand is now a relatively low about six hundred tons worth between eighteen and twenty million dollar others were shipped last year nancy arnold worked for tennessee show one of a half dozen show exporters it has been truck to memphis trade west to the coast and shipped to the far east the

shells are sliced diced and ground and the nuclei for the world's oysters in a year or two the finished paroles will make their way into the international market the hong kong or tokyo ms edna my evening hour that when people will out that credit carl and mike lee in our faintly been a thorough car yeah i enjoy their work if i kept unopened in a period of probably from what they've made no freshwater muffle you're protected it nasty or no tennessee muscles are the heart of the world pro market making tennessee the true mother of pearl for nashville public radio and todd jealous the peak to peak

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