A 34kg pearl worth $100million, displayed yesterday in Philippines, is being dubbed as the world’s largest pearl ever.
So, you’re a fisherman and you go out fishing one fine day, hoping to get a good haul. That’s it. That’s all you wish for. But as fate would have it, you end up finding a 34-kilogram pearl, which turns out to be the largest of its kind in the world .
That’s what happened to a lucky person in Palawan Island, Philippines. An unnamed fisherman fished out a giant clam from the sea that housed the pearl, roughly worth $100 million in the market.
But displayed to the world only yesterday, the pearl’s discovery had taken place at least a decade back. Probably unaware of the gigantic gem’s value, the fisherman had kept it tucked under his bed as a “good luck charm” for the last ten years.
In 2006, during one of his trips into the sea off the coast of Palawan Island, Philippines, the fisherman found the enormous clam while trying to dislodge his boat’s anchor that was wedged on it.
“He noticed that it [the anchor] was lodged on a shell and swam down to pull up the anchor, and also brought the shell with him,” said Tourism officer Aileen Cynthia Amurao. “He didn’t know how much it was worth and kept it tucked away at home as a simple good luck charm.”
Recently, after a fire broke out in his property, he was forced to move the pearl from his home. He then handed it in to the local tourism officers in Puerto Princesca, who shared its pictures on social media.
“We were amazed when he brought it to us,” said Amurao. “We now need help from gemologists to fully certify it. We’re waiting for authentication from Gemologist Institute and other international authorities.”
“But we believe Puerto Princesca is likely to earn another prestigious title and a record breaker for having the world’s biggest natural giant pearl from a giant clam,” she said.
They are most probably correct. This chunk of rock is one-foot wide and 2.2-feet long. Compared to that, the current world’s biggest pearl, the 6.4kg weighing Pearl of Allah, is a dwarf.
