Forget Combing The Beach With Metal Detectors...WHALE PUKE Is Where The REAL Money Is

[bloodrayne]

Treasure In The Sand

Streaky Bay, Australia - Loralee and Leon Wright have discovered one of nature's most valuable treasures - a 14.75kg lump of solid whale vomit worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Wrights found the lump of ambergris, an excretion from a sperm whale, while driving along Yanerbie beach, south of Streaky Bay, looking for schools of salmon.

Mrs Wright said at first they were not sure what the object was but, after driving past it several times, they decided to collect it and have it tested.

The best ambergris is as valuable as gold and it has been speculated the Wrights' find could be worth between $400,000 and $1 million.

Starting as a waxy substance in the intestines of whales, where the marine mammals secret it as a coating for the indigestibly hard beaks of giant squid, it is eventually spewed out and then floats in the ocean.

It can spend many years in the sea, which effectively processes it, before washing it up on shore.

The aromatic substance is used as a fixative in the perfume industry and, says Histoires de Parfums.com the world's only processing plant is in France.

Ambergris also has been used for medicinal purposes and, in some cultures, is said to be an aphrodisiac.

Mrs Wright said the ambergris now was in a bank vault for safe keeping. "We had it at home but we were that worried about it," she said. "I'd been keeping my eyes open for it for some time since learning about it on the Totally Wild children's television program about 10 years ago." "Until you actually find it, you don't really know what it's like." South Australia Whale Centre co-ordinator Brad Riddle said it was not known if ambergris had been found before in South Australia.

He said there was strong demand for the material, even though an alternative synthetic compound had been produced for use in perfume.

[mothermold]

Originally posted by bloodrayne
The aromatic substance is used as a fixative in the perfume industry and, says Histoires de Parfums.com the world's only processing plant is in France.

....it should'nt surprise anyone that the french would pay 100,000 dollars or euros for a whale turd.they would do better to use that money for fending off future invasions.