FRENCH POLYNESIA

Tuamotu Archipelago 

Manihi island

Manihi is an atoll 312 miles northeast of Tahiti in the Tuamotu Archipelago. Its clear lagoon, which is 3 1/2 miles wide by 19 miles long, has a deep navigable pass through the reef. 

It is here, in the purest, blue-green waters surrounding this remote atoll, that that South Seas "gem," the rare black pearl, was first farmed.