Diving for Melo Pearls

by Tisno Darmono
(Indonesia)

I'm from Indonesia and yesterday I found a snail and inside I found these "pearls".

I found them when I was diving and searching snails for our food and when I saw that snail I just caught it and brought it out from a sea then pulled up the snail from shell and inside I found these "pearls".

They weigh 7.5 carats and 16.5 carats.

I tried to find more snails and I got few but inside the snails I didn't find any pearls.

I wanted to keep the shell that had the pearls, and I tried to find the shell of this snail but my wife put it in a plastic bag and in the morning when my servant cleaned up my house she threw it away.

I'm wondering, why do some snails but not all snails have pearls and when they do have pearls inside they also are not always same colour or motif .....? Can someone explain this to me?

This photo shows back and front of each pearl.