"...shudda let the mutt eat it. then it would have been gift wrapped"
Posted on 02/01/2013 3:23:04 AM PST by Doogle
A man whose dog found a lump of rare and valuable whale sick on a beach is expecting to be able to sell it for more than £100,000.
Ken Wilman, 50, was out walking on Morecambe beach when his dog Madge started sniffing a lump of rock.
He told Sky News: "At first I thought it was a football but as I got closer I realised it was a big stone.
"She wouldn't leave it alone. I picked it up and it smelt horrible so I knocked it with my walking stick and a small lump came off.
"I put both pieces back on the beach but something in the back of my mind told me it might be something unusual.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
"...shudda let the mutt eat it. then it would have been gift wrapped"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris#In_culture
In Chapter 91 of Moby Dick, Stubb, one of the mates of the Pequod (captained by Ahab), cons the captain of a French whaler (Rose-bud) into abandoning the corpse of a sperm whale found floating in the sea. His plan is to recover the corpse himself in hopes that it contains ambergris. His hope proves well-founded, and the Pequod’s crew recovers a valuable quantity of the substance. Melville devotes the following chapter to a discussion of ambergris, with special attention to the irony that “fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris#In_culture
In Chapter 91 of Moby Dick, Stubb, one of the mates of the Pequod (captained by Ahab), cons the captain of a French whaler (Rose-bud) into abandoning the corpse of a sperm whale found floating in the sea. His plan is to recover the corpse himself in hopes that it contains ambergris. His hope proves well-founded, and the Pequod’s crew recovers a valuable quantity of the substance. Melville devotes the following chapter to a discussion of ambergris, with special attention to the irony that “fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.”
"The UK is a farce - some whale vomit on a beach is worth £100k yet when I was sick all over Blackpool beach after a day of binge drinking, I get a fine!! One rule for nature and another for humans. Disgraceful!"
posted by "digitalnonsense2010"
ROFL!!!!
I’m reading Moby Dick right now (very tough read...). Still don’t understand why the founder of Starbucks Coffee named it after Starbuck. I would have named it Stubbs Coffee!
ping
Good thing he didn't step in it.
Ambergris is not whale vomit. It comes out of the other end. Sperm whales swallow sharp things like squid beaks. (Yep, squid have beaks.) Some of them secrete a waxy substance to protect their innards from being torn by sharp items like the beaks. Some produce massive lumps weighting hundreds of pounds (sperm whales are large). A whale pooping ambergris is a very sick and probably a dying whale. The lump of ambergris floats off into the ocean and breaks up into smaller pieces in the water. Ambergris, being wax, floats. Some of it lands up on beaches. Fresh ambergris smells pretty awful, a goatish, animal smell, at least in my experience. Think barnyard. Ambergris aged for awhile in the ocean or on a beach smells just like English Leather cologne. The more it has aged, the greater its value, but only up to a point. Currently, ambergris value is $10-20 a gram. Perfume-makers use it. Yes, there is artificial ambergris, but many perfume manufacturers are purists and want the real thing. (I got interested in ambergris and did some research on it because I found some lumps on the beach, like the man in the story.)
That is very interesting whale info, toucan dance. Thanks... I learn something new everyday on FR.
who needs a trillion dollar coin?
all we have to do, is corner the market on whale vomit, and use it to pay off the debt!!!, quick, more stimulus, the problem is solved.
Good idea !
“So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
The vomit is worthless. What we need is a Jonah!
i've been so sick that i've puked up stuff from past lifetimes, but never worth anything...
....just some goofy stuff..*smiles*
he better treat that dog to a steak now an again from now on...
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