The Sri Lankan businessman, who has lived in the United Arab Emirates for the past 45 years, typically trades in silver and gold. Ambergris is a sideline, albeit a lucrative and highly enjoyable one. He has visited more than 100 countries over the years, many of them in pursuit of ambergris. Sometimes, he places advertisements in local papers seeking suppliers when he’s traveling. “I’ve not been that successful,” he laughs. On occasion, he has heard reports of a large ambergris find and jumped on a plane to try and negotiate a deal.

— Read more in A Brief, Fascinating History Of Ambergris: The odd, enduring appeal of a scarce commodity few people use and no one really needs at Smithsonian magazine.

They came across a giant sperm whale corpse, which contained a mammoth chunk of ambergris, a rare substance known as “floating gold” or “treasure of the sea”.

[...] “More than 100 fishermen participated in bringing the whale to the coast, cutting it open and then guarding the ambergris and selling it,” Abdulrahman said.

To avoid any disputes, the fishermen agreed on a percentage for each man before selling the ambergris. They then sold it for 1.3bn Yemeni rials, which is worth about $1.5 million on the street.

— Read more in Yemen: Fishermen find valuable 'whale vomit' and become rich overnight at Middle East Eye. Hat tip to Kevin!