2y ago

$500,000 chunk of 'floating gold' found in dead whale

www.livescience.com

The huge chunk of ambergris was found lodged inside the sperm whale — and scientists believe it ruptured its intestine, causing its death and subsequent beaching in La Palma.

4 comments

Sometimes I wish I had a job that meant spending time outdoors…
Antonio Fernández Rodríguez, an animal health researcher at the University of Las Palmas, was digging inside the washed-up whale's carcass>
And yet other times I’m very happy with an office job.
- I suppose all jobs will have exciting moments and boring moments. Well, most jobs.
- I'm putting in an application at the local cemetery! Imagine all the valuables inside those corpses!
The highly valuable substance — called ambergris — is a waxy material secreted by sperm whales when they swallow indigestible material such as squid beaks.
Ambergris is used to make perfumes and can sell for thousands of dollars per pound.
TIL perfume is occasionally not vegan