Our Philippine National Gem: The South Sea Pearl

Do you know how lucky we are to be living in the Philippines?  I honestly can’t imagine myself growing up in some other place.  It has been my home for many years and I quite enjoy the bountiful natural gifts we have in our country :)  I am up for any adventure but I must say, I think I was a mermaid in my past life.

I am not really a diver (claustrophobic and ear problems), but I love being in the ocean.  I guess you can say free diving would be more of my thing.  Best thing about the ocean is – it’s free!  It’s just there, waiting to be enjoyed by everyone 🙂

And in the Philippines, we are quite lucky to have some of the world’s best diving spots and surf spots!  I envy some of my diver friends and how they can see the beautiful bed of corals underneath our seas.  I can only enjoy exploring shallow reefs when I snorkel, but I haven’t seen much of the world down there and I believe it’s beautiful <3

South Sea Pearl

Yes guys, we have a national gem – as declared by Pres. Fidel Ramos on Oct. 25, 1996.  It is a beautiful product of our seas – the South Sea Pearl <3

Ah… beautiful isn’t it?  there are different kinds of South Sea Pearls, different colors, shapes and characteristics but one of the rare ones are the Golden South Sea Pearls…

and yes, they come out of the Oyster in lustrous golden color – no coloring whatsoever.

You know what, after our Palawan trip… I feel like a pearl expert now… Everytime I see pearls I look at the luster, the size, the shape and I feel the texture.  I identify if it’s South Sea pearl or just fresh water pearls…

Diamonds are girl’s best friend they say, but honey, once I introduce you to Golden Pearl baby, you will fall in love <3

Unlike diamonds that are formed naturally in a harsh environment (at high pressure and high temperature), pearls are actually an indicator of our Ocean’s health!  Sadly, the world is changing and unfortunate damages in the environment like pollution, garbage and global calamities can affect the quality of the pearls.

It is really pretty <3 I fell in love with these golden pearls knowing they had to go through 323 steps to produce and 5 years in the making at least.  Apart from that, only 10% of the oysters would result in a natural golden pearl.

WOW!

So you can just imagine how valuable they are and how important it is for us to protect our seas that in turn gives us these gifts 🙂

More than what you see…

I know that the Golden Pearl you see is pretty, but what’s more beautiful is the story behind it all.

It’s the story of the people who initiated a movement to protect especially Palawan seas.

We visited an island in Taytay Palawan they call “Baras.”

This is a community of people who are slowly changing their lifestyles into a greener approach.  If before people are so into dynamite and cyanide fishing, kaingin (burning of trees resulting to bald islands) and harmful practices to the environment, volunteers and some staff from the pearl farm reach out to these communities and educate them on the consequences of their actions.

And now, they teach them to make their own natural fertilizers, cultivate their own lands to produce root crops, vegetables and many more.  They are also into fashion!  The picture above is of the locals making necklaces and other decorative items 🙂

Beautiful flowers 🙂

They even have a bee farm to help polenate the plants <3

At the end of our trip… I felt good about the beautiful things that I have seen and I got more inspired to take part in saving it.

I care for the world I live in and I love capturing it in photos, I love walking on it, enjoying it and sharing this wonderful world with the people I love <3

and with that, I am honored to be one of Jewelmer’s Pearl ambassadors along with top online personalities like Vince Golangco of Wheninmanila.com, Noemi Dado of AboutMyRecovery.com, Estan of EstanCabigas.com, Anna Oposa of AnnaOposa.ph, Jayvee Fernandez of ABuggedLife.com,  Kankan Ramos of Yehey.com and myself 🙂

now joining Piolo Pascual as Pearl Ambassador!

wee!

There are things that you can do to save our seas :)  I will share with you how you can do this soon!

Not all superheros you read in comic books have super powers like superman.  We have Batman, Green Archer and many others.  We Filipinos are also proud to have Anna Oposa who is included in Yahoo!’s seven inspiring Filipinos – modern day heros!  She may not have gills like Aquaman, but she has the passion to protect our Philippine seas 🙂

Know more about the Golden pearls here.