NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- It's not often that people find pearls inside oysters from Narragansett Bay, but a Connecticut man hit pay dirt. Not only did Ben Bryda find a pearl inside his Rhode Island oyster, but he found a whopper of a pearl.
"It's huge," said John Clements, owner of Clements Jewelers in Meriden, Conn. Using a micrometer, Clements determined that the pearl measures 13.5 millimeters in diameter. In other words, it's about the size of a dime."I've never seen anything that size. I don't think anyone has," Clements said.
"It's very, very rare," said Tim Dillon, a manager at Wickford Shellfish.
Dillon sold the oyster with the giant pearl in it to a Connecticut fish market, which in turn sold it to Bryda last week. Dillon has been selling oysters from Narragansett Bay for 15 years and said he's never heard or seen a find like Bryda's.
There's a reason for that. Most of the world's pearls come from oysters that grow in the warm waters of the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. The oysters in Narragansett Bay, which is far colder than the South Pacific, are not pearl oysters, according to Michael Rice, a professor of fisheries and aquatics at the University of Rhode Island.
Sometimes, little pearls are found in oysters from Narragansett Bay, but they are never gem quality, Rice said. On the contrary, they tend to be "chalky," he said. Bryda's pearl is black, and it is natural as opposed to cultured, which are grown with the help of humans.
What could account not only for the pearl itself, but also its size? Rice said he can't be sure, but in general, pearls are a defense mechanism against irritants that threaten the health of the oyster. He likened them, believe it or not, to scabs.
A car salesman in Wallingford, Conn., Bryda wouldn't discuss his pearl.
According to Kevin McManus, owner of the Village Fish Market in Wallingford, he sold eight oysters to Bryda. Three days later, Bryda called him to say that at least two of them had pearls in them and one of those was huge.
It's big all right, but is it valuable? Ordinarily, natural pearls are more valuable than cultured pearls, but Rice doubts Bryda has struck it rich. "He's got himself an odd curiosity but not a pearl of gem quality." Should people start combing the bay floor looking for pearl-studded oysters? Rice said, "Absolutely not."