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Lexington - 4/12/17 Fakarava Atoll



We are now in Fakarava. The Tuamotu Archipelago is a string of atolls that stretch about 1,000 miles across the Pacific. There is a group of people called Paumotu that are the natives. These islands (atolls) are between the Marquesas Islands and the Society Islands. They are all part of French Polynesia. There are 76 islands but only about 30 are inhabited. Possibly the biggest fact on being inhabited is their size and do they have an entrance. Atolls have an outer barrier reef. If there is no significant break in the reef then you cannot get into the protected inner lagoon. Earlier the economy was based on fishing and copra production. Copra is coconut which has been opened and dried. The area is also known for black pearls which occurred naturally in the area but later a technique of culturing pearls was developed and improved to allow greater production. As I understand it, a tiny portion of another oyster is implanted into an oyster. It serves as a foreign body irritant which causes the pearl to be formed to cover the irritant. At Kauehi there were pearl farms but it was not the season of operation. We saw balls of material (3 feet by 5 feet ) which serve as an environment for raising baby pearls. Then the baby pearls are shipped to other areas where they are raised to maturity. I have heard that they may have been too successful leading to overproduction and less profits. We plan to investigate more as we travel along to Tahiti. Last night after arriving at about 5 p.m. we found a small restaurant on the beach. The couple running the shop were French but spoke a little English. Their food and service were very good. I had a very nice ice cream dessert at the end of our meal. Bob


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