Berry Dunlap, age 8, of Visalia, California, for his question:

Where in the world do they find real pearl oysters?

There are many kinds of oysters and they live in many seas and bays, gulfs and oceans around the world. Almost any oyster can make a pearl of sorts, but most of their pearls are not worth having. Only a few kinds of oyster make beautiful precious pearls. These lordly fellows live in warmish seas, usually near the shore where the ocean bed is hard and the water is 50 to 150 feet deep. They are very choosy about where they will live and there are not many places in the world that suit them.

The world's most famous pearl oysters live on the floor of the Persian Gulf. Other pearl oysters thrive around the Aru and Pearl Islands. These islands are in the warm Pacific Ocean, north of Australia. Others live in the Red Sea. Some are found around Burma and Ceylon. There are American pearl oysters in the Bay of Panama. And in the Gulf of California we have a very special fellow that produces world famous pearls of glossy black.