For Fares Abdelhakim and his friends, it was a day like any other.
These fishermen from southern Yemen had gone to sea as usual, when they found the jackpot in the belly of a sperm whale: “vomit” that is worth gold.
In February, the 35 fishermen stumbled upon a sperm whale carcass floating about 26 kilometers off the city of Aden.
They carry the dead animal to the shore, disembowel it and find "floating gold": ambergris, an intestinal concretion generally rejected by sperm whales and highly prized in luxury perfumery.
“I go to sea every day.
And that day we found a dead whale, full of ambergris.
Overnight, our lives changed, ”says Fares Abdelhakim.
More than 120 kg of amber
The piece of ambergris weighed 127 kilograms and it was sold to an Emirati businessman for over 1.2 million euros, a huge sum in a poor country ravaged by war and in the throes of the worst drama humanitarian aid to the world.
Some of the money was used to help people in need while the rest was distributed fairly among the fishermen.
“Some bought boats, others built or repaired their houses.
Me, I built mine, I built my future.
Life here is so hard, ”says Fares Abdelhakim.
For Salim Charaf, another fisherman in the group, the discovery allowed him to "lay the foundations for the future".
A catastrophic humanitarian situation
Already poor and endowed with fragile infrastructure before the war, Yemen has been experiencing a catastrophic humanitarian situation for more than six years, according to the UN and NGOs.
Two-thirds of the 30 million people depend on international aid, the funding of which has dwindled as a large-scale famine threatens the country.
Despite this context and despite their new fortune, Fares Abdelhakim and his acolytes continue to go to sea. “I will never do without this ocean.
The love of the sea flows through my veins ”, he confides.
“The sea is a better neighbor to me than a king,” he insists, citing a popular saying in Yemen.
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