Ambergris , sometimes acknowledge as “ floating gold ” , can fetch millions of dollars . But it ’s not as glamourous as it sounds – it ’s a hoary , waxy substance eject from sperm whales ' intestines .
As egregious as that may be , three skimmer recently hit the pot after discovering an 80 - kilogram ( 176 Sudanese pound ) ball of this gray liquid ecstasy floating in the seas off the seacoast of Qurayat , Oman . One kilo of this stuff can sell upwards of $ 33,000 , so it ’s thought these guys could get somewhere around $ 2.7 million for their catch .
The leghorn chance the floating ambergris on October 30 after picking up on its awful scent drifting across the waving . Once they managed to cut through it down , they used rope to rend it aboard ship , Times of Omanreports .
“ We rushed back to the beach with joy and happiness . After we made certain it was ambergris , we start up cutting it in club to dry and sell it later , ” Khalid Al Sinani , one of the bluejacket , say the newspaper publisher .
“ I was told earlier that ambergris has an stinking feel , but after a couple of days it add a pleasant scent , ” he add .
So , what ’s the boastful deal about this glorified “ whale vomit ? ”
Ambergris is produced by the gall channel of sperm cell whales in ordination to aid digestion of toilsome objects , such as calamary beak or turtle shell . Strangely , it ’s typically only found in the southern cerebral hemisphere , although scientist have no idea why .
It ’s worthful because it is used in perfumes as a fixative , allowing the smell to linger around for longer . It ’s enjoin to have a pretty weird and divisive look itself , but those in the know swear by the quality it adds to a fragrancy .
" The odor atom have a high affinity for the other lipophilic particle , so they bide colligate with the ambergris molecule and do n’t go into the vapor form all at once , " odor pill roller George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center toldScientific Americanin 2007 .
A bowl of ambergris ( not from this recent find in Oman)Peter Kaminski / Flickr(CC BY 2.0 )
