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It might have just been a large rock, but something told Narit Suwansang that he had found something else.
It’s not gold, but it might as well have been. According to Thai media outlet Thairath, the smooth, beige-beige rock that Suwansang innocently found along a beach in Nakhon Si Thammarat on November 26 turned out to be whale vomit. And before someone starts throwing up, that’s expensive.
Ambergris, or actually whale vomit, is formed when a sperm whale vomits and its bile floats along the ocean until it reaches the shore as a hardened chunk. It is mainly used in luxury perfumes as a fixative to help scents last longer.
And considering the difficulties involved in finding natural ambergris, it costs a fortune: A businessman has already offered Suwansang a whopping 960,000 THB (42,600 Singapore dollars) per kg for the stone if it turns out to be Grade A ambergris.
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The chunk reportedly weighs about 100 kg, the heaviest chunk of ambergris found in history. If the deal goes through, the 60-year-old becomes a millionaire overnight.
Considering how he brought the dough home on a whim, and that he was only able to confirm that it was whale vomit after it melted in close contact with a flame and emitted a musky odor, that’s a pretty lucky find.
Meanwhile, Suwansang is currently awaiting confirmation from experts on the grade of his piece of ambergris, though he plans to register his find with the police in the meantime, in case it is stolen.
“I want to know more about this ambergris,” he told reporters. “Please find out what kind of whale vomit I found.”
https://www.facebook.com/thairath/videos/380572186347699
This is not the first time that a local Thai has been lucky. At the beginning of last year, another man found a piece of dumped whale that weighed 6.5 kg, worth a total of THB 10.5 million, while another found another piece that weighed 16 kg and had a value of THB 20 million.