A fisherman in Scotland was walking his dog along the beach in Ayrshire when his dog discovered a colored spot on the shore, which may be the highly valuable substance known as ambergris.
“I work on a fishing boat, so I know what ambergris is. I had never seen it before, but I had heard stories about it,” said 37-year-old fisherman Patrick Williamson to South West News Service about the vomit-like substance that resembles a rock.
“I was walking along Irvine beach with my dog when I saw something on the seaweed, and my dog ran over and dropped its ball. The dog usually never drops its ball, so I knew there was something there,” he explained. After his dog discovered the mysterious colored spot, Williamson picked it up for inspection.
One thing is certain, if it washes ashore, the lucky finder has hit ‘gold’.
According to the Natural History Museum website, ambergris is dubbed the “treasure of the sea” and “floating gold.”
Sperm whales eat creatures like squid and cuttlefish, and while most indigestible parts of the prey are vomited out before digestion, sometimes they get stuck in their intestines, where they bond and develop over many years into a mass of ambergris.
Scientists debate whether whales vomit ambergris – hence why it is referred to as whale vomit – or if they excrete it along with their feces. One thing is certain, if it washes ashore, the lucky finder has hit ‘gold’.
Large pieces of ambergris have been sold for millions of dollars for use in the perfume industry. High-end perfumers use ambergris because it helps scents cling to human skin.
This substance is solid by weight, and a chunk found in the Canary Islands weighing 21 pounds was valued at nearly $500,000.
Large quantities of ambergris can be worth millions of dollars.
In 2021, a fisherman discovered a whale waste mass weighing 280 pounds worth about $1.5 million.
Williamson stated that the rock he believes to be ambergris weighs about 5.5 ounces or 0.34 pounds. One way to test for ambergris is to heat a needle and place it on the surface of the rock. Ambergris will melt quickly, while the rock will not.
“I weighed it when I first picked it up, and it weighed about 5.5 ounces. It’s not really large compared to some other pieces that have been found,” Williamson said.
“We tested it with a hot needle, and it reacted exactly like ambergris,” he added.
