| Margarita Pearls – An Update from Key West |
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July 13, 2007 -- R. Duncan Mathewson III, Ph.D., BWVKW Archaeological Director
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 Key West is playing host to Akira Hyatt, pearl expert from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). She has arrived to assist us in the sorting and classification of the thousands of pearls recently discovered by Blue  Water Ventures Key West on the Margarita site. The company working under a joint venture partnership with the Mel Fisher’s Treasures Group, feels confident that there are many more pearls and treasure of all types still to be found in the widely dispersed shipwreck scatter leading to the “mother lode.”
Akira is working together with Gary Randolph, Vice President, Director of Operations at Mel Fisher’s Treasures and Jim Sinclair, Archeologist in a close examination of the pearls. This involves the painstaking sorting of the pearls ranging in size from as small as a sand grain to as large as 22mm in diameter. All pearls are being classified into six different categories using size, shape, color, luster, and surface as major attributes.
The objective of this preliminary examination is to determine how best to conserve the pearls and to determine what type of sample should be temporarily loaned to the GIA for non-destructive scientific analysis back in their New York City laboratory.
 As the Margarita like the Atocha falls under the protection of Admiralty Law and Federal Jurisdiction through the 11th District Court the loan will have to be sanctioned as a substitute custodianship under a court order by Judge James L. King. The court order is now being processed to allow the pearls to be tested outside the federal jurisdiction.
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| View previous Pearl News Archive, June 18, 2007 |
| See the official press release, additional photos, and video replay of the box opening here. |
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