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14th July 2023
08:29am BST
A massive chunk of "floating gold" was found in the belly of a dead whale beached on the Spanish island of La Palma.
The rare substance — called ambergris — is often referred to as floating gold and has been the holy grail of perfumers for centuries as it can help a scent stick to a person's skin, The Guardian reported. It is a waxy material secreted by sperm whales when they swallow indigestible material such as squid beaks, LiveScience explained.
Ambergris is used to make perfumes and can sell for thousands of dollars per pound. The chunk found inside the sperm whale in the Canary Islands weighed about 21 pounds (9.5 kilograms) and could sell for approximately $550,000 (£430,000), The Guardian speculated.
Heavy seas and a rising tide made it difficult to carry out a postmortem on the whale, but Antonio Fernández Rodríguez, head of the institute of animal health and food security at the University of Las Palmas, was determined to find out how it died, and while doing so made the valuable discovery.
Rodríguez was digging inside the animal's colon - having suspected a digestive problem - when he came upon a chunk of Ambergris in the whale's intestine. It is thought the substance ruptured the whale's intestine, leading to its death, and beaching.
“What I took out was a stone about 50-60cm in diameter weighing 9.5kg,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.
Only 1% to 5% of sperm whales are found with ambergris — a secretion from the bile duct that is believed to coat indigestible objects the animal has eaten, LiveScience reported.
Normally whales regurgitate these objects - so, ambergris is most commonly found floating in the sea - but when they don't, the ambergris helps protect the whale's organs from the sharp material.
In the case in La Palma the ambergris is thought to have grown too large and ultimately led to the whale's death.
Ambergris has a woody scent like sandalwood but also contains ambrein, an odourless alcohol that can fix and extend the life of scents, hence its popularity among perfumers.
Sperm whales are given the highest level of protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, an international treaty banning the sale of various threatened species and their parts. But because ambergris is considered an animal waste product, it isn't covered by the treaty and is legal to sell in many countries.
Rodríguez told The Guardian he hopes to sell his chunk of ambergris and use the proceeds to support victims of a 2021 volcanic eruption on La Palmas, which devastated parts of the island, causing an estimated $929 million in damages.
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