A local, penniless, fisherman accidentally found the possibly "world's biggest rare blob of whale vomit," the ambergris, an expensive ingredient for perfumes costing about $80,000.00
Naris Suwannasang, 60, took a walk by a beach in Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand when he chanced upon lumps of what looked like a rock.
He asked his cousins to help him bring the mass of rocks home. As soon as they got home, they examined the rocks.
The rocks seemed to resemble ambergris, a rare secretion of a whale used as a valuable ingredient for perfumes.
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The largest blob of whale vomit
According to Naris, the "whale vomit" weighed around 220 lbs, making it possibly one of the largest blobs of whale vomit finds in the world.
The family tried to burn the surface with a lighter, which caused it to melt instantly.
He said a businessman is interested in buying the ambergris for 960,000 Thai baht (£23,740) per kilo should the ambergris be of high quality, making Naris about $80,000.0 richer.
Naris is now waiting for confirmation from a specialist if the massive blob is indeed ambergris. He also said he would go to the police to have his discovery recorded for fear that the ambergris might be stolen from his house.
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How ambergris is formed
Ambergis is a solid, waxy, dull grey, or blackish substance produced by sperm whales. Some call it the treasure of the sea or the floating gold.
A freshly produced ambergris has a strong fecal smell similar to that of a cross between squid and farmyard manure. But when the blob dries out and ages, it has a sweet, earthy scent, similar to the fragrance of rubbing alcohol.
Sperm whales are known to eat large quantities of cephalopods such as squid and cuttlefish. It is believed that the whale spews up the mass. Thus it is called the 'whale vomit.'
The valuable whale blob is formed from a secretion of the bile duct in the intestine of the sperm whale. Ambergris is usually found floating on a sea or washed up in coastlines, or the abdomen of sperm whales.
Scientists believe the ambergris is formed in the gastrointestinal tract of whales to ease the passage of hard objects that the sperm whale may have eaten.
As cited in Wikipedia, ambergris finds have been recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, South Africa, Brazil, Madagascar, the East Indies, The Maldives, China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Molucca Islands. Most ambergris is from the Bahamas and New Providence in the Atlantic.
According to Christopher Kemp, ambergris is only produced by an estimated one percent of the sperm whales, and it usually floats in the sea for years before making it to the land. Thus, ambergris is truly a rare find.
Ambergris is widely sought because of its value. Perfumers use it to make the scent of perfumes last longer.
Thus, a local, penniless fisherman finding the World's Largest Blob of Whale Vomit is truly a rare, valuable find.
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