From poor to millionaires, thanks to the treasure in the belly of a whale

Humble fishermen from the village of Al-Khaisah set out at dawn to face with bent backs what would be another day. However, Allah was on their side and sent them the greatest treasure ever found on the shores of Yemen: nail ballena cachalote death he had in his belly 150 kilograms of “ambergris”, a very expensive natural product that cosmetics use to fix perfumes and perfumes quality.

For him they charged 1.5 million US dollars, a fortune fallen from the sky, if you think that the ambergris It is usually found floating and in a few grams.

The corpse of ballena cachalote which for the Yemenis became the lamp of Aladdin, floated in the Gulf of Aden.

The boat, carrying around 35 fishermen, approached the sperm ballerina floating and had to enlist the help of several dozen fishermen and nine other boats near the town of Hodeidah, to be able to transport such an animal to the coast. In all, it took the strength of a hundred men to transport the specimen.

“To avoid controversy, the men agreed on a percentage for each before selling ambergris for a total of 1.3 billion Yemeni rials (approximately $ 1.5 million) ”, As detailed by the BBC network.

“We are all poor, we never expect to have such a number. It’s incredibleone of them said.

In thanks for their lucky day, the fishermen donated part of the proceeds to the poorest people in their village, Al-Khaisah.

The amber gray of the whale

the sperm whales (Macrocephalic physeter) are the largest known marine animals and males can weigh over 50 tonnes. It is sometimes said that they are WhalesBut in reality they do not have beards but teeth and the food that they gobble up on the seabed goes through their four stomachs.

Squids are the favorite menu of sperm whales and to aid their digestion, their intestines make a speed oily which softens the digestive transit of the sharp parts of its prey. This bile of stench it’s him “ambergris” and it is one of the most coveted fragrance fixers in perfume manufacturing.

Nail sperm ballerina it excretes it in the faeces and ends up floating in the sea or even on the shores. Although it is whitish and almost mottled, oxidation changes its color and hardens it.

In general, the ambergris It is always presented by the dropper, by the gram, and never in large quantities. In addition to the historical discovery in Yemen, the largest volume of ambergris never found weighed 635 kg and came from a ballena cachalote hunted in Indonesia.

As it is generally quoted around $ 10 per gram (minimum price), fishermen would go in search of living whales to empty them and keep their precious treasure. For this reason, the sperm whale population, once so large in the temperate seas of the world, began to decline dramatically in the 17th century.

Sperm whale hunting has reduced the global population of this marine mammal, especially in the Caribbean Sea and Indian Ocean.

When in 1963, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature drew up its famous Red List, it took pity on the sperm whales and included them.

In the United States, it is absolutely forbidden to buy or sell ambergris (even if it’s the one on the beach) and it’s a felony punishable as a violation of the Endangered Species Act, enacted in 1978.

Almost all sperm whales are dark, but the famous albino sperm whale mocha cock who sank the whaler Essex in 1820, inspired Herman Melville to write his famous novel, Moby Dick.

The whale museum in the Nantucket Island, in Massachusetts (United States) has a 5.5-meter-long jaw that would correspond to a 24-meter-long specimen. The museum explains that the albino whale that submerged Essex was 26 meters long.