Pearl oyster resources of India

The pearl oysters belong to the genus Pinctada Roding under the family Pteriidae. They enjoy a world wide distribution occurring in almost all the seas of the tropical belt and also in the subtropical region. Six species of pearl oysters occur in the Indian waters viz., Pinctada fucata (Gould), P. margaritifera (Linnaeus), P. chemnitzii (Philippi), P. sugillata (Reeve), P. anomioides (Reeve) and P. atropurpurea (Dunker), of which P. fucata alone has contributed to the pearl fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar and Gulf of Kutch. P. fucata is distributed in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Indian and Pacific Oceans