Pearl Farming
Pearl farming, centred at Manihiki atoll, is based on cultivating the black-lip pearl oyster. Cultured pearls are a vital export for the Cook Islands.
A survey for the Ministry of Marine Resources in Rarotonga in the year 2000 calculated 1.5 million oysters were being cultivated. This survey also recorded 111 farms with a total of 690 culture lines and 424 spat collection lines. The total length of these farm lines was 160 kilometers, with the farms themselves covering seven square kilometres. A quarter of a million black pearls were being produced each.
The industry is at low ebb at the moment and has been overtaken by fishing as the Islands' main revenue earner after tourism. But the government is taking action to revive the industry.