Do you think the cultivation of pearl oysters is good for our economy or are we putting our beautiful lagoons at risk?

The Government of Mauritius wants to exploit our oceans and a number of projects have begun to turn the island into an Ocean State. One of them is pearl farming which is basically breeding oysters for their pearls, not their flesh. Many spots have been identified around the island but it seems they'll be starting in the east coast (towards belle-mare).

Now although this may be good for our economy because it will create more local jobs and bring in more money to our country by exporting these so much sought after pearls for jewellery, the farming will be done in our lagoons. Oysters will be put in cages on the sea bed of our lagoons (not where we're likely to swim obviously, but further out) but won't that affect our marine life?

Surely if we're doing that on a large commercial scale, the oysters will be consuming a lot of nutrients in our waters and that may affect our biodiversity.

Do you think it's a good initiative or one we're going to regret afterwards?