The price-value anomaly is obvious to consumers as they hasten to buy Chinese freshwater bargains. Indeed, pearls from freshwater mussels lie at the center of the liveliest activity in pearling today.

The harvest of akoya pearls such as these raised ... of a book on pearls (see History of Pearls and Culture of Freshwater Pearls). "I would never attribute it to an unidentified mystery disease.

Produced by oysters in oceans or mussels in rivers, pearls have been coveted by humans since the Bronze Age. So much so that it is believed the exploitation of freshwater pearls was a factor in the ...