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Man finds whale spit worth $100,000


Owlscrying

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A man from Portland, Victoria has found a lump of ambergris, or whale spit.

The rare find had washed up on a beach. It comes from sperm whales and is used by the perfume industry.

The seven-kilogram lump could be worth more than $100,000.

The man who found it says the whale gets a build-up in the back of its throat after eating a giant squid. He says the whale coughs it up and the spit can float around for up to ten years.

The only sting in the tail is that it is illegal to sell ambergris.

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ooooo thats gotta hurt!! Finding something you know is valueable and probably easy to offload but is illegal to sell! <_<

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Being that this has been made public, the poor guy wouldn't even be able to sell it to the blackmarket....So what do you do with a lump of whale spit :rolleyes:

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the fact that the purfume industry uses ..whale spit... is even more disgusting a thought then finding it...

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why is it illegal to sell whale spit that can only be obtained through natural means. how does he know what it is. and what perfume is it in

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why is it illegal to sell whale spit that can only be obtained through natural means.

Probably to stop people trying to capture sperm whales in order to get some.

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Probably to stop people trying to capture sperm whales in order to get some.

Ya, grabing a sperm whale by the throught, roughing it up a little, and then telling him to "cough it up"..... wait that kinda sounds like Saturday night at my house.

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Whale loogies are worth $? Im in the wrong buisness.

:D yeah.. Maybe am gonna wait for 10 years or more to find that perfect spit.

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the fact that the purfume industry uses ..whale spit... is even more disgusting a thought then finding it...

Nothing but the best whale spit on your body to make you feel attractive. Blechh!

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Actually, I think ambergris comes from the stomach or something. Does that mean it's not spit?

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Actually, I think ambergris comes from the stomach or something. Does that mean it's not spit?

What I meant to say is that makes it whale sick...almost.

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Actually, I think ambergris comes from the stomach or something. Does that mean it's not spit?

I think it's just a general term used by the people.

Ambergris (Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, ambergrease, or grey amber) is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull gray or blackish color produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Ambergris has a peculiar sweet, earthy odor (similar to isopropyl alcohol); though it has now been largely displaced by synthetics, the principal historical use of ambergris was as a fixative in perfumery.-wiki
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And where do you suppose spit comes from?

LOL nevermind, scratch that. It seems my mind isn't working yet today

Edited by crtbud
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If you read Melville's Moby Dick, there is a passage regarding harvesting ambergris from a killed whale. All of the crew were pretty happy because they knew that ambergris was so valuable.

During the whaling heyday, ambergris was one of the most valuable whale products.

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Nothing but the best whale spit on your body to make you feel attractive. Blechh!

*FLAILS* EW EW EW EW

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