Abstract: Pinctada maxima, a first class national protected wild animal with high social, economic and ecological value, is a unique pearl oyster species in the South China Sea. The distribution and status of P.maxima resources were investigated by diving section method in Yangpu and Lingao Pearl oyster Nature Reserve and western Leizhou Peninsula Nature Reserve. The results show that frequency of P.maxima was 54.55% in Lingao waters. Habitat density ranged from 0 to 0.25 ind · m^-2. Biomass ranged from 0 to 70.31 g · m^-2 in Lingao waters. Frequency of P.maxima was 15.38% in Yangpu waters. Habitat density ranged from 0 to 0.10 ind · m^-2. Biomass ranged from 0 to 22.55 g · m^-2. Frequency of P.maxima was 65.00% in west Leizhou waters. Most stations habitat density ranged from 0.10 to 0.20 ind · m^-2 and the maximum habitat density was 0.30 ind · m^-2. The maximum biomass was 390 g · m^-2 in west Leizhou waters. The analysis reveals that the current age structure of P.maxima is relatively unreasonable, which indicates that the stock structure has been destroyed and its recovery ability is weak.