Robert WAN is known as the “Emperor of Tahitian Pearls” for his unrelenting devotion to ocean sustainability and producing the highest quality pearls, cultivated in the pristine lagoons of Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. He founded Robert WAN more than 50 years ago and, to this day, he still fiercely protects the lagoons where oysters grow one of the world’s most sought-after jewels.
The family business, including two of Robert WAN’s grandchildren, Alexandrine and Richard WAN, recently supported Oceana at its 17th annual SeaChange Summer Party in Laguna Beach, California, donating a precious strand of Robert WAN pearls to the event auction. Richard, who is also the commercial director for Robert WAN, shares how love and respect for the ocean was instilled in him and all the grandchildren from an early age. Now, these third-generation members are intimately involved in the family business and passionately preserve the priorities and practices of Robert WAN.
“When we were children, we spent our holidays on our grandfather’s pearl farms. We would get up in the morning and spend the whole day fishing, walking on the reef, and exploring the lagoon,” Richard says. “Sometimes we would hurt ourselves, but that’s how we learned to know the sea and, above all, respect it.”
The WAN family cares for private islands in French Polynesia where they exclusively cultivate pearl farms, carrying out the arduous tasks of caring for oyster nurseries by hand. It can take between two and five years for an oyster to naturally cultivate a pearl, beginning with collecting the spat or larva and helping baby oysters shelter from predators. Collecting can only happen twice a year, in a two-week window, and requires a very specific water temperature.
From there, the delicate baby oysters are “raised,” as workers manually clean and care for them for two to three years, ensuring the baby oysters can breathe and eat properly. At the appropriate time, a nucleus is inserted in the oyster pearl pouch and a tiny part of the black mantel from a donor oyster is grafted, thus beginning the culturing process. Again, the grafted oysters must be manually cleaned and cared for to ensure they grow properly. The process can take up to two additional years until finally, the harvest comes… the moment of truth when the jewel is revealed.
Rising ocean temperatures and microplastic pollution are two issues of utmost concern, Richard says, to the business of caring for these sensitive oysters.
“One of our duties is to remind bigger countries that their practices have important consequences even on the other side of the world in very small islands, like Tahiti,” Richard says. “I believe Oceana can help and any victory concerning the use of plastic is already a big step for us.”
The pearl industry wields great leverage as French Polynesia’s number one export revenue and second source of GDP. Sustainable governance is critical to the social and economic life of those who inhabit the 118 islands where these pearls are cultivated.
“For me, the other grandchildren, our parents and, of course, our grandfather, the ocean is our partner. Without a healthy ocean, we have no business,” Richard says. “Oceana has a real impact in protecting our oceans through powerful action and messages. We want the Robert WAN brand to echo those messages.”
“I believe that if we can improve the oceans through the Tahitian Pearl then this fight is well worth it and one of my grandfather’s many missions will have been accomplished.”
