Ten years ago, an ordinary fisherman dropped his anchor in the water during a storm off the coast of Palawan Island in the Philippines. But instead of hitting the seabed, it got caught on what he thought was a rock. He later found that it was actually stuck to the shell of a giant clam – that contained the world’s largest pearl.
Of course, the fisherman didn’t realise how lucky he was at that time. After surviving the storm, he brought the huge pearl to his run-down shack and kept it under his bed as a good luck charm. After a fire destroyed his home, he showed the pearl to a local tourism officer Aileen Cynthia Amurao who was simply stunned.
"He didn’t know how much it was worth and kept it tucked away at home as a simple good luck charm,” she says. Amurao added that they were now awaiting the authentication of the rare find from the Gemologist Institute and other international authorities.
The pearl reportedly weighs around 77lbs. and is worth a whopping $135 Million. It has been given the name ‘Puerto Princesca’. Interestingly, the current record title holder for the world’s largest pearl, which is called The Pearl of Allah, was also found off Palawan, Philippines in 1934.
