Pick-a-pearl in Hawaiʻi: is it worth it, and what you're buying

Pick-a-pearl is worth doing as an experience, as long as you know what you are buying. You choose a cultured oyster or mussel, it is opened in front of you, and you keep the pearl: usually a small, real but modest pearl farmed in China or Japan, sometimes dyed. Most of what you pay goes on the opening and the setting, not the pearl, so judge the setting as jewelry in its own right and ask what the pearl is before you choose one.

Are there pearls in Hawaiʻi?

There were. Puʻuloa, the harbor the world knows as Pearl Harbor, was also called Wai Momi, “water of pearls”, for the pearl oysters that once grew there. Accounts from the early 1800s describe divers bringing them up in numbers, and say Kamehameha I claimed the harbor’s oysters for himself and forbade others to take them. In 1818 a visiting trader gave the king an oyster dredge, and by around 1840 the beds were largely gone. Mud washing down from deforested uplands smothered what was left.

The pearl oysters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were harvested heavily from the late 1920s, and the black-lipped pearl oyster is now uncommon across the islands and illegal to take. A black pearl farm off Honolulu’s reef runway won state approval in 2001, but we found no record that it ever produced pearls. Since 2016, the Navy, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and community groups have been returning native oysters to Pearl Harbor, but to clean the water, not for jewelry.

So the pearls you see for sale in Hawaiʻi are imported. That is not a reason to avoid them, but a “Hawaiian pearl” is a pearl set in Hawaiʻi, not one grown here. Our guide to made-in-Hawaiʻi jewelry explains how to ask where a piece was made.

What pick-a-pearl actually is

You pick a shell from a tank or tray, a staff member opens it at the counter, and the pearl or pearls inside are yours. The shells were farmed elsewhere and shipped in, often preserved; the pearl did not grow in Hawaiian water.

Sellers usually call the shells oysters, and some are akoya pearl oysters from Japan or China. Many pick-a-pearl pearls, though, are freshwater pearls, which GIA describes as grown in freshwater mussels, mostly in China. One large Hawaiʻi chain’s Waikīkī page describes its pick-a-pearl oysters as holding freshwater pearls, and a trade report on one of its kiosks said each oyster is guaranteed to hold one or two pearls.

What typically comes out:

• Size: small. GIA puts most akoya pearls at 6 to 8 mm; pick-a-pearl pearls are often smaller.
• Shape: round to off-round, sometimes button or drop shapes.
• Color: white, cream or pink are the usual natural tones. Bright pink, lavender, blue, green, gold or black from an akoya or freshwater shell is almost always dyed.
• Quality: variable, but rarely the top of the range. Expect visible spots and softer luster.

How pick-a-pearl pricing works

There are usually two charges:

1. The opening fee. A flat price per shell. A 2007 NBC News report gave $13 for one oyster at a Hawaiʻi counter. Expect it to be higher now, and ask before you pick.
2. The setting. Optional. A pendant cage, ring, stud or bracelet mount to hold the pearl, priced like any other jewelry by metal and weight. The same NBC report said about half of buyers went on to buy a setting.

The setting is where most of the money goes. Before you agree to one, ask the metal and karat, whether it is solid or plated, and the weight in grams, just as you would for any piece. A gold-plated cage is a souvenir; a solid 14k setting is jewelry. Compare the price with plain settings elsewhere, and with the ranges in our Hawaiian jewelry price survey.

A useful way to think about it: as a gem, the pearl from a single opening is usually modest. You are paying for the moment, and that is a fair thing to pay for.

Tahitian, South Sea and other pearls sold in Hawaiʻi

Many Hawaiʻi stores also sell pearls already set or strung. The main types:

Type	Mollusk	Where farmed	What they look like
Akoya	Akoya pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata)	Japan, China	Round, white to cream with pink or silver overtones, mostly 6–8 mm
Freshwater	Freshwater mussels (Hyriopsis)	Mainly China	White, pink, peach, purple; often off-round; many per shell
Tahitian	Black-lipped pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera)	Mainly French Polynesia; also Cook Islands, Fiji	Gray to black with green, pink or purple overtones
South Sea	Gold- or silver-lipped pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima)	Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar	Large, about 8–20 mm; white, silver or gold

Tahitian and South Sea pearls generally cost much more than akoya or freshwater pearls of a similar size. If a counter offers “Tahitian” pearls at akoya prices, ask whether they are dyed.

How to judge a pearl

GIA judges pearls on seven value factors. Five of them you can check at the counter:

• Luster. The most important. Hold the pearl under a light and look for a sharp, bright reflection of the bulb or your face. A chalky or milky surface means poor luster.
• Surface. Look for spots, pits, bumps and wrinkles. A few small marks near the drill hole matter less than one on the face.
• Shape. Roll it on the counter. A round pearl rolls straight; an off-round one wobbles. Round is valued most, but a good baroque pearl can be beautiful and cheaper.
• Size. Measured in millimeters. Bigger costs more, but only when the other factors match.
• Nacre. You can’t see thickness directly, but thin nacre shows as dullness, and sometimes as a visible bead line or chipping near the drill hole.

The other two are color, and matching for pairs and strands.

Dyed or natural color

Under the FTC’s Jewelry Guides, a seller should disclose a pearl treatment that isn’t permanent, needs special care or significantly affects value. Dyeing is the usual example, and bleaching is routine on freshwater pearls.

Checks you can do:

• The color itself. Very even, saturated colors in akoya or freshwater pearls are dyed. Natural colors are softer and vary across a strand.
• The drill hole. Under a 10× loupe, dye often gathers as a darker ring at the hole or in surface pits.
• Ask for it in writing. For an expensive pearl, ask the seller to write “natural color” and the pearl type on the receipt. Only a lab report confirms it for certain.

What to ask the seller

• What type of pearl is this, and where was it farmed?
• Is the color natural, dyed or otherwise treated?
• What size is it in millimeters?
• For pick-a-pearl: what is the opening fee, and what are the setting prices before I choose?
• What metal and karat is the setting, solid or plated, and what does it weigh?
• Will you write the pearl type and any treatment on the receipt?

If you want a pearl piece to keep, pick the pearl and the setting for their own sake. Our guide to Hawaiian pendants covers settings and chains, and Hawaiian earrings covers studs and drops.