This couple will soon be smiling home with mega cash after discovering a whale vomit also called floating gold at a beach worth over N14 million naira.
A couple are celebrating after a large, smelly 'rock' they picked up on the beach turned out to be a chunk of whale vomit - potentially worth a whopping £50,000 ( over N14 million) The Mirror reports.
According to the report, Gary and Angela Williams, from Overton, Lancashire, were strolling along Middleton Sands beach near Morecambe Bay when they smelled rotting fish.
After following the stench, they spotted an bizarre-looking 'rock' that resembled a piece of ambergris - or 'whale vomit' - which is used in perfume -making.
The couple had previously read about the highly-prized substance in a newspaper, so they wrapped the enormous lump in a scarf and took it home.
Gary, 48, later put the mound on his fishing scales and found it weighed 1.57kg - just more than half the size of a lump discovered near Morecambe several years ago.
The previous piece of 'whale vomit' was valued at a staggering £120,000 in 2013. Gary and Angela, a 49 year-old nurse, are now in negotiations with potential buyers over the recently-found lump, which is slightly smaller than a rugby ball.
Dubbed 'floating gold' due to its rareness and high value to perfume makers, ambergris is hardened intestinal slurry from a sperm whale. The substance takes years to form and is thought to protect the animal from the hard and sharp objects it eats.
It can float in the ocean for years before washing ashore.Long-term exposure to the sun and salt water transform it into a smooth, grey lump of compact rock.
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