Beachgoer hopes lump find is rare, prized ambergris
A golf-ball-sized lump of whale vomit may help a Dunedin woman to buy a house.
That lump will this week be examined at Otago Museum to confirm if it is ambergris.
Ambergris is a wax-like substance secreted in sperm whale intestines. It protects the whale’s stomach from its abrasive diet of beaked squid.
It has been used for centuries in expensive perfumes, as it traps aroma on the skin for long periods.
Its relative rarity also means it can attract hefty prices – more than $10,000 a kilogram.
That is an exciting prospect for the woman, who did not want to be named, after finding the 100-gram lump on Aramoana Beach earlier this year.
‘‘It is one of my favourite beaches in New Zealand,’’ she said. And it is easy to see why, given the discovery.
At first, she thought the lump was pumice but immediately felt the weight of it.
The woman had approached a dealer about buying the lump, but first wanted confirmation from an expert. She planned to put any funds from a sale towards buying a house.
Bruce Mahalski, of Dunedin’s Museum of Natural Mystery, was sitting at a pub when he overheard the woman talking about her find. ‘‘I asked if she had a photo, and she pulled it [the lump] out of her bag.’’
Mahalski, who used to work in fisheries research, identified a squid beak inside the lump. ‘‘It looks good to me.’’
A confirmed ambergris find could spark would-be treasure hunters to comb the beach, but Mahalski warned many of them would instead be picking up and testing ‘‘dog turds’’.
‘‘The chance of finding something today would be just as remote as finding something yesterday.’’
A 40-kilogram find of ambergris, equivalent to the normal total annual export of the substance, was found in South Wairarapa in 2011.