Whales are marine mammals, divided into toothed cetaceans and baleen whales, including dolphins under the cetaceans. Under the skin of the whale, there is a very thick layer of fat called whale oil, which can keep the whale warm and can also store energy to supply emergency needs.
There are still many treasures on the whale's body, such as the world's 4th largest whale "sperm whale", which has an object called "ambergris", which is not only a raw material for precious spices, but also a precious medicinal herb. A 50kg piece of ambergris is worth a lot, but this opportunity is not often available and requires luck.
In Yemen, a small country in southwest Asia, 35 fishermen encountered such luck in the Strait of the Gulf of Aden, they found a sperm whale nearly 20 meters long, dug out a piece of ambergris weighing 127 kilograms from its body, and sold it for 10 million yuan.
sperm whale
How was this sperm whale found?
On the Arabian Peninsula, there is a country called Yemen, which is very small, very poor and backward, adjacent to Saudi Arabia, Oman and other countries, and across the sea from Somalia in Africa.
Yemen is a country with a predominantly plateau, mostly desert and semi-desert, and arable land accounts for only three percent of the country's land area, so some people want to farm for a living, but have no land to plant. Fortunately, Yemen has 1,906 kilometers of coastline, which allows many landless people to make a living from fishing.
Yemen's landscapes are mostly desert
Between the Arabian Peninsula and the Somali Peninsula in Africa, there is a Gulf of Aden, and fishermen often go together to fish in the waters of the Gulf of Aden. After all, if you want to catch more, you want to go to the deep sea farther, and the deep sea is far from the land, more people travel together, in case of any abnormal situation, you can also take care of each other, or in other words, catch any big fish, everyone can help each other.
In February 2021, Draim drove his fishing boat to the Gulf of Aden to fish, accompanied by many fishermen from the same village, but everyone drove the boat in different directions to fish. Derim drove the boat to a sea area, he saw from a distance, not far away there was a huge floating on the sea, some fishing boats nearby were detouring, he felt very strange, so he slowly approached, when a rotting stench came, he finally understood why those fishing boats were circling.
The giant turned out to be a whale, more than 15 meters long. In 20 years of fishing, it was the first time I had seen such a large fish, and it was a whale. Although it was the first time he had seen such a large whale, he also knew that this was a rare sperm whale. Unfortunately, this sperm whale is dead and emits the stench of carrion.
sperm whale
Delaim also knows that sperm whales have treasures in their bodies, and if they dig them up, they may be able to have a good income. He decided to drag the sperm whale back, but he alone could not do it. He quickly opened the boat and called a group of fishermen, calling more than thirty people back and forth, everyone prepared ropes, nets and the like, and followed Delem to the sperm whale place, and everyone worked together to drag the dead sperm whale back to the shore.
For these fishermen, this sperm whale is the hope of changing their lives, even if the stench is unpleasant. What is their purpose? Is it for whale meat?
In fact, these fishermen are for the "excrement" in the whale's body, which is often called "ambergris", if they can get ambergris, then they will send it. Delaim said, you see this sperm whale is so big, and it is dead, if you open its belly, it is very likely that the whale body will explode, which will consume our huge manpower and material resources, what do you say?
35 fishermen hauled sperm whales back to shore
A giant in the body of a sperm whale
These fishermen, who have been poor for decades, even generations, want to change the status quo. After some discussion, they decided to take the risk and open the whale's belly to see if there was anything they wanted.
The 35 fishermen divided the work and cooperated, divided the sperm whale against the stench, and then gouged open the belly of the sperm whale, and a black object with a fishy smell appeared in front of their eyes, they were so happy and excited to cheer!
Several of the fishermen, together lifted the black object out, took it to weigh, and found that it was 127 kilograms, and after several days of sun exposure, this object actually emitted a special fragrance, which is ambergris, one of the four famous incense.
Ambergris removed
Later, they sold the ambergris to a businessman and received 300 million riyals, equivalent to 1.5 million US dollars, about 10 million yuan, and on average, each fisherman received 285,000 yuan. This money is a huge amount of money for these fishermen, and their future life may no longer have worries, and they can let their wives and children live a good life.
So, what exactly is ambergris and how is it formed? And why is it so expensive?
How is ambergris formed?
Ambergris, also known as gray amber in the West, is dark gray in appearance, or black, and its form is solid wax, which comes from the body of sperm whales.
Sperm whales belong to the toothed whale suborder Sperm whale family, is the larger of the toothed whale suborder, males up to 23 meters long, females up to 17 meters long, conical in size, head about one-third of body length, barrel-shaped. Because of its huge head, it is also known as the "giant whale".
Ambergris is actually the excrement and vomit of sperm whales, after sperm whales eat giant squid, octopus, etc. in the deep sea, other parts of these deep-sea fish are digested in the stomach of sperm whales, and because the bones of the mouth part of the squid and octopus are relatively hard and cannot be digested.
Ambergris is lighter in color, the more valuable it is
Sperm whales can not digest, these large mollusk jaws and tongue teeth, these hard substances, in its stomach and intestines accumulate, the intestine secretes a special waxy substance, thereby wrapping the food residue, over time, these secretions are larger and larger, so large that whales can not withstand it, will be excreted by whales, or vomit.
These newly excreted excrement, black and soft, the smell is quite unpleasant, at this time can not be called ambergris, they also need to go through time precipitation, and then through the sun, air and sea water together, from the initial black, gray, and then white. Thus emitting aroma and forming ambergris.
Whether in the West or the East, ambergris is the best choice for making spices. So, when was ambergris discovered?
ambergris
History of the discovery of ambergris
The earliest country in the world where ambergris was found was ancient China. In the Han Dynasty, fishermen caught some gray-white waxy drifting in the sea, small 10 catties, large hundreds of catties, fishermen at that time found that it was very peculiar, there was a strong fishy smell, but after drying, it could emit aroma, and when lit it, it was full of fragrance. But the fishermen at that time did not know that this was the finished ambergris.
These ambergris were purchased by some local officials and later presented to the emperor as treasures. At that time, no one knew what kind of treasure it was, they thought it was a "dragon" in the sea, and the saliva that flowed out of sleep dripped into the sea water and solidified, and after a few days, it became "ambergris".
Ancient Hebrew women also dipped ambergris, cinnamon and benzoin into oil to make a fragrant oil and applied it to their bodies.
ambergris
With the progress of the times, one by one natural mysteries have been revealed, everyone believes that ambergris is the saliva of "dragons", this statement has no basis, so people have a variety of conjectures about the origin of ambergris: some people think that it is weathered by guano, some people think it is formed by submarine volcanic eruptions, and some people say that it is beeswax, which is generated after a long period of floating in seawater.
An object was conjectured, which aroused the interest of marine biologists, and after continuous research, biologists believed that it was a huge marine animal intestinal secretion, and there was no answer as to what animal secreted it.
Who discovered the secret of ambergris? Ambergris was discovered by fishermen on the island of Kotra, Saudi Arabia. The fishermen of this island mainly make their living by fishing sperm whales. Once, an old fisherman caught a sperm whale, and when he opened the sperm whale's intestine, he found a huge black object.
At the time, fishermen believed that it was sperm whales eating away at objects on the surface of the sea, and no one knew what the object was. Later, the news spread all over the place, and marine biologists took it very seriously, and they immediately conducted in-depth research and finally solved the mystery of ambergris.
sperm whale
Scientists have found clottings of intestinal fluid and foreign bodies in the intestines of sperm whales, believing that this is the beginning of ambergris. Scientists believe that some sperm whales will leave ambergris in the body, some will excrete the condensate from the intestine, and some will vomit the condensate from the mouth and discharge it into the seawater.
Ambergris discharged into the sea is initially light black, but under the action of seawater, gradually turns gray, light gray, and then white. The white ambergris is of excellent quality, and it has to be soaked in seawater for more than a hundred years to float out all the impurities in order to become the best in ambergris. And when it comes to the price of ambergris, it can be said that it is as expensive as gold.
How expensive is ambergris really?
According to historical records, in the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1555 AD, the superintendent of ceremonies sent an edict to the household department (one of the "twelve supervisors" of the inner court of the Ming Dynasty to manage eunuchs and palace affairs), took 100 jin of ambergris, and the hanging price was 1200 taels per catty, which is equivalent to about 1 million yuan today, and the reward price reached 2000 yuan per gram.
On December 3, 1912, a Norwegian whaling company caught a sperm whale in Australian waters, obtained a 910-pound ambergris from its intestines, and sold it for 23,000 pounds.
In 1955, a New Zealander picked up a 14-pound piece of gray ambergris on the beach and sold it for $26,000.
Sperm whales stranded
Ambergris has been used as a spice since ancient times, and the fragrance companies have graded the purchased ambergris, ground it into a fine powder, dissolved it in alcohol, and then formulated into a 5% concentration of ambergris solution for the preparation of perfumes or as a fixative. Ambergris is a very valuable spice, in ancient times ordinary people can not afford to use, mostly used by the palace family, and in modern times, the price of ambergris is also rising, today, has reached more than 1500 yuan per gram.
The international market of ambergris, almost controlled by France, a perfume country, the purchase price per kilogram is between 2~90,000 francs, and the selling price of the fragrance company after processing, and then doubled several times, and the price of each kilogram of perfume can reach 12 to 200,000 francs. It is equivalent to our 900,000 to 1.55 million yuan, which is quite expensive.
Ambergris (a Chinese medicinal herb)_360 Encyclopedia
Yemeni fishermen picked up 127 kilograms of ambergris worth nearly 10 million yuan