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Fishermen get rich from whale - 9th July 2021

In Yemen, a strange discovery has changed the lives of a group of poor fishermen.

One day, Abdulhakeem and his friends went out to sea, as they usually do. They saw a dead whale in the water.

Fares Abdulhakeem: "I head out to sea everyday in search of my daily catch. And on one of those days, we found a dead whale. It turned out to be a whale full of ambergris."

The fishermen brought the whale back to land. When they cut open the animal, they discovered 12 kilogrammes of an unusual substance called ambergris.

Some types of whales produce ambergris in their stomach. It helps food to be digested.

Ambergris is used in the production of perfume. It is worth a lot of money. The ambergris was sold to an Emirati businessman for $1.5 million.

In Yemen, there has been a long war and the people are suffering. For poor fishermen, this amount of money is huge. It’s changed their lives.

Fares Abdulhakeem: "Many people made a good use of it. There are those who bought boats, others built or fixed their houses. I built my house – I built my future. The circumstances here are already difficult."

Life has changed but this group of men will continue to fish. It's in their blood.

Salim Sharf: "We are simple people, fishermen looking for our catch everyday. If you found your catch for the day, you thank God. Suddenly, the Most Merciful gave us this."