Distribution

Pinctada Margaritifera ranges from the Gulf of California, Mexico, to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea but reaches its greatest abundances in the atoll lagoons of Eastern Polynesia, from the Tuamotu-Gambier archipelago of French Polynesia to the northern group of the Cook Islands. It extends across the northern coast of Australia from Champion bay (29°S) in Western Australia to Moreton Bay in Queensland (Saville-Kent 1872). The hydrology of individual lagoons limits abundance, due to larval retention and primary productivity.

Within the widespread geographical areas there are certain places with particularly rich pearl grounds and these have represented the center of the so-called pearling fleets in the past.