This Would Make Me Happy as a Clam

Actually, I think clams don't experience happiness too much, but: At Va. Shore eatery, woman bites clam, finds $3K pearl

A Virginia Beach woman is happy as a clam after finding a rare 41/2-carat lavender pearl in a littleneck purchased at the Great Machipongo Clam Shack in Nassawadox.

"I bit down on it and I pulled it out and said, 'Look at this,'" said Kathleen Morelli.
Billy Bowen of B&E Seafood in Willis Wharf, who has been in the clam-growing business for a quarter century, said he has never found a pearl in a clam grown through aquaculture like the one Morelli bit into.

The littleneck, grown in Hog Island Bay, likely was between 1 1/2 and 2 years old, he said. "In the natural clams you could find them in there, about once a month you could find them. But in all my experience, I have never seen one to come out of an aquaculture clam – it's very rare," Bowen said.

The pearl's large size, found in such a small clam, makes it even more unusual.
"We've been buying from him for years. When he told me that he has never seen one in an aquacultured clam, I said, 'Gosh, that's fascinating,'" said Jean Mariner of the Clam Shack.

I guess pearls are rarer in aquaculture clams because they're raised off the bottom, and don't get the grit that grows into pearls.  But at $3,000 a pearl, it would behoove someone to try to reproduce the process like they do with pearl oysters.

Kinda cool, but worth $3,000?