Whale 'rewards' Wairarapa Maori

The chance discovery of a huge chunk of whale ambergris - worth millions to international buyers - has reaped rich rewards for members of the South Wairarapa marae who found it.
Ngati Hinewaka spokesman and kaitiaki Haami Te Whaiti, who has been involved with nine whale strandings on Wairarapa beaches since the mid-1990s, said on Thursday the 40kg mass of ambergris was discovered by him and about a dozen other people belonging to Kohunui Marae at Pirinoa.
The group had been gathered at a stretch of South Wairarapa beach near Mangatoetoe last August where the remains of an 18m bull sperm whale had been mutilated and set alight by unknown culprits.
Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act the remains of the whale, which was possibly alive when it had stranded about a month earlier, are first passed over to the tangata whenua of that area for recovery or disposal.
The jaw and teeth had been hacked from the corpse before the remains were further desecrated by fire, Mr Te Whaiti said, and the Kohunui group had been called together "to do right by the whale".
"We had to cut it in half to bury it and after separation we noticed a dark brown, almost black lump just lying there in the gravel. It just appeared there. I'd never seen anything like it before."
Mr Te Whaiti said the mass was tested and found to be "fresh" ambergris.
Brokers were contacted and potential buyers flew to Wairarapa from France and America out of a pool of possible bidders that also included a company in Pakistan, he said.
Ambergris is a solid, waxy, flammable substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales that is used mainly as a fixative for high-end fragrances in developed nations and in some cultures as an aphrodisiac.
The Wairarapa ambergris was eventually sold to a French company, although Mr Te Whaiti could not disclose the amount paid under the terms of the sale.
"It was a lot of money - that's all I can say."
Dargaville-based broker Adrienne Beuse said New Zealand was world-renowned for the high quality of ambergris found here.
She said up to $10 a gram or more could be paid to the finder of highest quality white beach-cast ambergris and from $20 to $40 is paid per gram within the global fragrance industry.
Mr Te Whaiti said a large portion of the funds from the sale last year were spent on fitting out Kohunui Marae with a new kitchen and exterior revamp during a project in March that is to be broadcast on Maori Television.
He said marae members harbour serious concerns - given the desecration of the whale last year - that publicising their discovery could increase the risk of similar mutilations for money in future.
``We didn't keep our find secret but it isn't something we've shouted about either - even though this sort of discovery only happens once in a hundred years.'' 
Mr Te Whaiti said there were still funds remaining from the sale that would be spent on the collective enrichment of the 2000 people belonging to Kohunui who live in and beyond Wairarapa.
"Finding the ambergris, for all of us, felt right," he said.
"It was a gift from the whale, from the ocean - our ancestors, our tipuna, taking care of us."
Read earlier story - Carcass butchered, burned