Designer pearls hold bright prospects
Ruhul Amin, who studies textile engineering at the Bangladesh Polytechnic Institute, has successfully used the image implanting method to produce high-quality designer pears at his pond in Chhoto Palsa village under Mohonpur upazila of Rajshahi. Having taken up aquaculture a few years back in a bid to fund his education, Amin began the venture by farming breeds of carp before adding oysters to mix in July 2022 to make more profit. Oysters generally produce pearls when an irritant, such as food particles or a parasite, get lodged in their mantle, where the internal organs are stored. To defend against such foreign bodies, the oysters ooze a type of carbonate mineral and protein that create a material known as nacre, which is the nucleus of a pearl. Layers of nacre are added over time with the pearl growing in size with each excretion. However, it can take up to three years for pearls to reach an adequate size for harvest using this method while the image implanting technique shaves down