Treasures of the sea: Everything that comes out of the captivating whales is precious

Whales are so captivating that even what comes out of them can be precious.

She took it back home and thought that it might be worth something. Imagine her shock when she found out that the lump was actually whale vomit and that it might be worth over Rs 2 crore.

Whale vomit, also known as ambergris, takes years to form and is created from a secretion in the intestines of the sperm whale.

BLUE WHALE/BALAENOPTERA MUSCULUS

PAKICETUS
50 million years ago, on the edge of the riverbanks in India and Pakistan, the earliest ancestors of whales used to live a humble life.

They had 4 legs but the deerlike animals loved the water. I am sure they could never have imagined they would become whales.

These gentle giants feed on plankton and are different from other sharks. They are definitely not like the one in Jaws. But they can live over 125 years. They are extremely vulnerable and often end up in fishermen’s nets in Odisha and Gujarat.

The good news is that the Wildlife Trust of India and others have launched several awareness campaigns since 2004, and times are slowly changing. Fishermen rescue a lot of whale sharks these days. Just last month, fishermen in Gopalpur, Odisha, let go of the giant fish after it was caught in their net.