Ambergris?

[viv poly]

I found this wax-like lump while beachcombing in Botany Bay. I thought it might be ambergris so I tested it with a hot needle. There was white smoke and it melted, although the melted part was grey, not chocolate-coloured as described on some websites. It does have a strong marine odour - not pleasant. I also noticed some tiny red worms, so perhaps I've found a floating worm colony. Any ideas?

The other three identical images - sorry about that - is a huge lump of I don't know what and has shells embedded throughout. Couldn't dig it out of the sand.

 

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[Lucky Eddie]

It LOOKS like a calcified whales kidney to me!

 

[viv poly]

Interesting, Lucky Eddie. Can you suggest any uses for it?

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Other than a door stop you mean? LOL
No - sorry.

I could be wrong of course. I really have no idea what it is -its just that one of the pics with the right angle square looks like a kidney sectioned thru with a sharp knife is all!.

Botany Bay - has me wondering what it might be?.

 

[PaddyB]

I wonder if it is another tale like this - chap thought he had ambergris but when he came to sell it was told it was just fat!

Father and son's '£65,000 whale vomit' is worthless fat - BBC News

Paddy

 

[viv poly]

I think you're right, PaddyB. Not allowed to sell ambergris under Australian law so if it was ambergris I'd have a dilemma. Black market or donate to museum?

 

[PaddyB]

I think you're right, PaddyB. Not allowed to sell ambergris under Australian law so if it was ambergris I'd have a dilemma. Black market or donate to museum?

Not sure why selling Ambergris should be against the law in Australia? It is actually whale vomit, so no harm is done to a whale to create it. You could not obtain it by killing whales as it needs to be in the sea for quite a while before becoming usable (in the perfume industry). What possible use would a museum have for it!

Still Ozzies are a law unto themselves. :-)

P

 

[Lucky Eddie]

We have some of the craziest laws related to wildlife (he says from experience being a past wildlife officer here).

I recall 2 poor dudes who found a whale washed up dead on the beach, so they went and got a chainsaw and removed the lower mandible for the ivory whales teeth!

Wildlife officers heard about it and charged them with"being in possession of protected wildlife under the wildlife act!.

So it doesn't matter that it died of natural causes you see - just the act of being in possession of it is enough to get you busted.

We have some of the stupidest laws on the planet which I don't have time to go into right now.

 

[trikikiwi]

Good on you for investigating it. A greasy smelly lump, found on a beach.
I'm not sure if all the signs are aligned sufficiently for to make you slightly wealthy with this find.
I suspect a lump of 'tallow'.
Might have come from a ship's kitchen waste discharge out at sea, or a local Fush & Chups shop.'

 

[viv poly]

Can't sell it America either. Stupid, stupid. I didn't stick my fingers down its throat to make it vomit, did I? Museums probably want it so they call "study" it. Pfft.

 

[viv poly]

If you find some, Trikikiwi, you can sell it. Big business in New Zellend. Kitchen waste is probably right. I did get in touch with the Environment Department, who referred me to ORCCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia) and they want to have a look at it.

 

[hvacker]

It might be against the law so greedy people won't kill whales for the stuff.

 

[viv poly]

Hvacker, you can't get it from dead whales so the law sucks.