An employee for Myanmar Andaman Pearl Company examines a newly-bred oyster through a microscope at the company’s laboratory at a pearl farm at the Myeik archipelago in Tanintharyi Division. Pic: Khin Hninn Phyu

HIGER than usual sea temperatures in late 2006 resulted in the death of thousands of oysters being farmed in the Andaman Sea, sources from the Myanmar pearling industry said.

The warmer water allowed for the greater spread of a barnacle that harms oysters by taking their food once it has settled on the oyster’s shell.

The impact of last season’s wave of barnacles would likely reduce total production for the Myanmar pearl industry in the coming year or two, sources predicted.

An official from the Myanmar Andaman Pearl Co. said the company lost about 90,000 oysters as a result of the warmer water. It had also put the company in a difficult position going into the next pearling season as its staff were busy clearing barnacles off surviving oysters’ shells, he said, asking not to be named.

Myanmar Andaman were now considering bringing forward the company’s harvesting schedule this year due to the poor health of the surviving oysters, he added.

“We initially planned to harvest in August but now, because of the oysters’ health, we will harvest earlier,” he said, suggesting the extraction of pearls could start as soon as this month.

U Htun Hla, general manager of Myanmar Atlantic Company, another pearl producer, said global warming and El Nino weather patterns meant the industry was facing more work now than in the past.

The Andaman Sea temperature off the Tanintharyi coast had risen to 31 degrees Celsius in April this year from 29C at around the same time in 2006, according to Myanmar Atlantic figures.

The company had successfully dealt with the barnacle challenge, however, U Htun Hla said.

“We put a lot more effort into cleaning oysters this year than we usually do,” he said, adding that the barnacle population was declining now due to the onset of the rainy season.

But while the barnacle issue was of some concern, officials from Myanmar Tasaki Company, the biggest pearl company operating in Myanmar, and the state-owned Myanmar Pearl Enterprise said they could cope with the situation.

Dr Thein Han Mra, general manager of Myanmar Tasaki, said the Japanese-run pearling firm’s output had not be affected due to good management, which ensured its oysters were regularly cleaned. Its efforts were aided by the use of an air hose to clean oysters’ shells, a tool Myanmar’s domestic pearl companies did not have, he said.

According to Myanmar Tasaki’s records, the sea temperature had risen about 1C from a year ago, Dr Thein Han Mra said.

There are five pearling companies operating in Myanmar waters; three foreign-owned and two domestic.

Myanmar possesses about 25,600 square kilometres of pearl-producing waters. The country produced more than 400,000 South Sea pearls in the 2006-07 financial year, compared with slightly more than 300,000 pearls in 2005-06, according to government figures.