KOH SAMUI — A bar owner said Wednesday that a lump he found on the beach a year ago may be a valuable lump of whale vomit.
Boonyos Tala-upara, owner of Beryl Bar on Koh Samui, believes he may have found a 10-kilogram lump of highly valuable ambergris, and is asking for experts to help him identify the lump.
Ambergris, is a rare excretion of digestive products from sperm whales highly valuable in the perfume industry. However, waxy lumps found in the ocean can also be “fool’s gold,” made of clustered pollution.
The lump Boonyos’s found is 50 centimeters long and has a hard brown outer layer and a softer, waxy yellow inside with a raw smell. Boonyos also compared the lump to a candle, and said the lump was definitely not of the same material. When heated with a direct flame, he said the lump melted and regained its form after cooling.
Boonyos said he found the lump about a year ago on the beach at Ao Kaki and took it home. Eventually some of his friends told him it was whale vomit.
In April 2016, a 1.57 kilogram ambergris ball found in Lancashire, England, sold for GBP50,000, or more than 2 million baht. In November of the same year, three Omani fishermen found 80 kilograms of ambergris and sold it for USD3 million, or more than 94 million baht.
