Natural pearls — that is, wild pearls that have formed without the intervention of pearl farming techniques — can occur anywhere. In the rare cases when natural pearls do make their way onto the jewelry market, they usually aren’t associated with a particular place or oyster species but are simply sold as “natural”. The vast majority of pearls sold today are cultured on controlled pearl farms, and any pearl or pearl strand that’s being sold as akoya will be a cultured product.