By Paul Byrne
31 January 2013
A dog walker who spotted a smelly yellow rock on a beach
says discovering it as whale vomit was like finding a “bag of cash”. Ken
Wilman said his boxer dog Madge found the 6lb lump, which could be worth
£100,000, in Morecambe, Lancashire . Ken only
realised its potential value after an online search revealed the substance was
ambergris, an ingredient used in the manufacture of perfume. A French dealer
has offered £43,000 but experts say the lump of hardened intestinal slurry from
a sperm whale could be worth twice as much.
Ken, who is unemployed after hurting his back in a motorbike
accident, said:“I didn’t actually realise what it was at first and couldn’t
understand why Madge was so interested in it. It smelled horrible. I left it,
came back home and looked it up on the internet. When I saw how much it could
be worth, I went back and grabbed it. It is like walking on the beach and
finding a bag of £50,000 in cash."
Mr Wilman now plans to send a small sample of the rock to France to have
it checked. He added: “If he verifies it, it will be like winning the Lottery.”
Chris Hill, curator at the Aquarium of the Lakes in Newby Bridge , Cumbria Europe that will buy it from you.
They will age it, like a fine wine, and then test it for perfume.”
Sperm whales eject the intestinal slurry into the ocean
where it often floats in the water for years while it hardens and develops a
distinctive odour. In 2006 a couple walking on an Australian beach found a
32-pound chunk of ambergris, which netted them $295,000.
Ten facts about ambergris
1. Ambergris is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull
grey or blackish colour produced in the intestines of sperm whales
2. It's produced by the whale to protect its gut from the
very sharp beaks of squid that it feeds on deep down in the ocean
3. Although called 'whale vomit', it is probably pooped
rather than vomited
4. It is excreted hundreds of miles away from land
5. It can float on the ocean for years before washing ashore
6. Years of exposure to the sun and salt water transform the
waste into a smooth, grey, lump of compact rock which has a waxy feel to it
7. Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor and
as it ages, it acquires a sweet, earthy scent
8. It got its name because it looks like the amber washed up
on beaches in the Baltic. Gris comes from the Latin word for grey
9. It is used in the production of perfume and as a result
is extremely valuable
10. Scientists refer to ambergris as "floating
gold" because of this
To find out more about ambergris, please click this:
http://afkra.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-is-ambergris.html
Source : http://www.mirror.co.uk
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcomed, and thanks for your support.
Delete