A video from South China Morning Post shows an effort to revive the pearl fisheries around Hong Kong.
The clip shows a seed being planted in the oyster, not a microchip. Perhaps that is inserted after the seed?
In this region, it seems the oysters are destroyed to recover the pearls. I wonder if attempts have been made to use processes which allow the oyster to be used multiple times? If the oysters can survive longer it would reduce the problem of destocking. But perhaps the economics work differently with freshwater pearls.
The video raises more questions than it answers, but a lot of information is conveyed in a short amount of time.