CAPE MAY, NJ — A Brick Township man found a pearl possibly worth thousands of dollars in a clam while dining at a Cape May restaurant over Presidents Day weekend, according to a pair of reports.

Michael Spressler and his wife, Maria, were dining at the Lobster House, an iconic Cape May restaurant, when Michael bit down on what he thought was a stone, the NJ.com report said.

When he took the item out of his mouth he found the pearl, the report said. He told NJ.com he is trying to find out the value of the pearl, which measured 8.85 millimeters, or just under a half-inch in diameter.

He found the pearl in the final clam of a dozen clams on the half-shell that he ordered as an appetizer, Michael Spressler told CBS 3 Philadelphia.

Maria Spressler told the television station she was hoping to have the pearl set in a piece of jewelry as a remembrance of the day, which marked the 34th anniversary of the couple's first trip to the restaurant, she said.

Pearl values depend on several factors, according to Pearl-Lang.com, including the size, color and shape of the pearl, as well as flaws on the surface of the pearl.

Cultured freshwater pearls, the most common seen in jewelry, are the least expensive, with low-quality freshwater pearls being worth $20, the site said. The most valuable pearls come from the South Sea areas off Australia, Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines, with those worth into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Naturally formed pearls can be worth more depending on the quality of the pearl, the site said. Neither offered potential values for naturally formed pearls from clams harvested off the East Coast of the United States.

One of the key factors in determining quality is how close a pearl is to being perfectly round. "To be considered as a perfectly round pearl, the variance in diameter measured from several directions needs to be no more than 2 percent," Pearl-Lang.com said.

While oysters are most commonly associated with pearls, other shellfish, including clams, can produce pearls as well.

According to The Pearl Source, the most expensive pearl in the world was found by a Filipino fisherman off the Philippines. It measured 26 inches and is worth $100 million, the website said.

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