PALIKIR, Pohnpei (The Kaselehlie Press): June 13 - June 26, 2002 - The Nukuoro Municipal Pearl Farm held a sale of its first ever pearl harvest on May 14 and 15, 2002 at the PCR Restaurant.

About 900 pearls were harvested and over 800 pearls were sold.

"We earned over (US) $10,000 dollars," said Chief Magistrate George D. Steven of the Nukuoro Municipal Government.

Nukuoro's Pearl Farm is looking forward to its next harvest, which will be sometime in July. The new pearls will be displayed in November.

The Farm is in need of approximately $40,000 dollars to pay for a grafting technician to do three different jobs for them.

First the technician will do the summer harvest, second the implantation of about 2,000 pearl oysters and, finally the seeding of 10,000 oysters.

The technician will arrive the first week of July and will spend one month in Nukuoro and leave the first week of August.

"I believe that the next harvest will be better than the one we just had and our pearls will have more qualities than the first harvest as our experience grows," Steven said.

"It is better for locals to be proud of what they can produce, but not what they import from the outside countries.

"A pearl is a worthy Christmas gift for our loved ones, and there are still some pearls that are not yet sold if any one is interested," he said.