Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Ambergris Found on Melborne Beach. Source: clickOrlando.com. |
MELBOURNE BEACH, Fla. – A very expensive ingredient found in high-end perfumes that comes from whales may have been discovered by a diver taking a walk on a Florida beach after Hurricane Milton.
Kristen Marvin believes she found excrement from a sperm whale called ambergris.
It can be worth a small fortune because ambergris makes the scent of perfumes last longer.
Marvin said she was looking for washed-back turtles and hatchlings after the storm when the pile of crap caught her eye.
“I had a pretty good suspicion,” Marvin said. “And I picked it up and had a look at it, and I thought, ‘I’m pretty sure this is ambergris.’”...
Here is the link for more about that.
Woman finds ambergris on Florida beach. The whale poop could be worth a small fortune
Thanks to DJ for the lead on that story.
I often try to alert you to different kinds of treasure. When you can't find one kind, you might be able to find another. I never like to pass up something interesting or valuable simply because I wasn't smart enough to recognize it. Sometime in the past thirty or forty years, there is a very good possbility I've walked right by a piece of ambergris.
Ambergris is currently worth something like $35 per gram.
Ambergris is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. It acquires a sweet, earthy scent as it ages, commonly likened to the fragrance of isopropyl alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency. (wikipeidia)
Some of the articles call it "whale poop." I don't think that is totally accurate.
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Volunteers are a key part of the archaeological labour force and, with the growth of digital datasets, these citizen scientists represent a vast pool of interpretive potential; yet, concerns remain about the quality and reliability of crowd-sourced data. This article evaluates the classification of prehistoric barrows on lidar images of the central Netherlands by thousands of volunteers on the Heritage Quest project. In analysing inter-user agreement and assessing results against fieldwork at 380 locations, the authors show that the probability of an accurate barrow identification is related to volunteer consensus in image classifications. Even messy data can lead to the discovery of many previously undetected prehistoric burial mounds.
Here is the link for more about that.
Long ago I posted about the need for involving he public in archaeology. Instead of protecting archaeology from the public, it would be better to involve the public in archaeology. There will be more discoveries and people who are interested and involved will protect archaeological sites.
I've been watching how in many varied fields performance is being elevated by greater involvement by the public. Mass involvement leads to shared knowledge and improved techniques. I've said this before, but I learned more from watching a single football game on TV with the analysis that is provided than I learned in both high school and college football. And then the internet provides much more analysis and information on top of that. The amount of information that is available in all kinds of fields increases skill and performance for those who are interested and pay attention.
In sports today, training and coaching begins much earlier, as does diet, exercise. It is hard to imagine, but back in the early 1970s, some college teams did not even have strength training rooms, and the Steelers were among the first to get heavily into strength training, as well as strength enhancing supplements.
The same kind of thing happens in metal detecting. A lot has been learned through all the sharing of information, much of which comes over the internet.
On the same topic, I just found a site where the online community shares their fossil finds. Here is that link.
Collections - The Fossil Forum
And of course, you know about things like the PAS Database and the Mel Fisher Artifact database for detectorists.
Even the online auctions provide a lot of information, as I've been pointing out lately. Of course, those who seek more information will be more informed. Reading broadly helps. If you are only interested in one type of treasure, you will miss many others.
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| Source: SurfGuru.com. |
That looks good. I'm liking the size of the surf, but not seeing any good angles. Still, with the high tides and the high surf, if it actually happens as predicted, the amount of water on the beaches should produce some good spots even if the angles aren't real good. And the coastline with all its curves, will have some angles that are better.
Keep watching this.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net