I would be looking at the tide and wind data to try to calculate where it could be now....probably on the shore at N-island....time to pay off the house baby!!!:cool:

welcome to the identify that rock
 

:you_rock:thats a pumis rock seen a few of them floting around not ever that big tho 1 i see where like this big:luxhello:

Holy floating stones Batman!

California-Oregon-Washington Stock Sperm whales are found year-round in California waters, but they reach peak abundance from April through mid-June and from the end of August through mid-November. They were seen in every season except winter (Dec-Feb) in Washington and Oregon.

8. FINDING LARGE PIECES OF AMBERGRIS IN THE SEA
Whole blocks of amber are often found in the open sea. Since the blocks have roughly the same density as sea water, they are sometimes almost completely immersed and can only be seen intermittently. Frequently, one can locate the blocks without actually seeing them due to their being surrounded by a calm area of sea similar to that which might be produced by a spillage of oil. This zone is also identifiable by the odour of amber and whale excrement.

If it smells like chit, that there is good shiat.

3 feet across, that thing is probably worth more than $ 600,000.

However,

" it is unlawful to possess, sell, deliver, carry, transport, or ship by any means whatsoever any parts or products of an endangered species taken within the United States. Ambergris, a secretion of the sperm whale intestine, is regarded as a marine mammal product by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Possession of it is prohibited by the Endangered Species Act of 1973"

/bing

Hmmmmmmmmm.... lets see... floating rock worth $600,000.... take the 5 lobster, divide that... that's $120,000 per bug. Hope they tasted good! :banghead:

Dude thats pumice.... Its allways nice to dream of treasure.

Ambergris was only put on that Act becuase it used to be aquired by hunting sperm whales, In 2001 that was overturned, becuase Ambergris is naturally expeled from the whale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris

As of 2006, raw ambergris fetched approximately US$10 per gram, with much higher prices possible for particularly high-quality samples.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-nytimesambergris_3-0>[4]</SUP><SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-4>[5]</SUP> In the United States, importing, buying, or selling ambergris — including ambergris that had washed ashore — was considered a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-MMPA_5-0>[6]</SUP> In 2001 this ruling was overturned, and ambergris was deemed not to be a byproduct of the whaling industry, since the whale expels this substance naturally.<SUP class=Template-Fact title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from February 2008" style="WHITE-SPACE: nowrap">[citation needed]</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
<SUP>Go get em!</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>

thanks for the ban lifting info. good stuff. /bing

Bob ?
 

Bob i cant believe u have no in put on this matter, come on you must of had an idea for shem to go back and get his floating gold hmmmmm maybe a rope and pull it back like a tug boat...I cant catch fish so i dont no what is harder to bring back.

Seriously as soon as I saw the pic I said "It's Ambergris"
 

Never seen any but I've heard of it. Damn.

I'm pretty sure that was pumice (spelling?) It didn't have an odor and sure felt like rock when I pushed it with the paddle. Nice to dream though.

It's pumice. Sorry guys.

If it were formed within an animal, the striations would be in a concentric form, not stacked in sedimentry layers as the rock in the picture.

Think about an object formed in the space of an organ, the layers would build around a nucleus, like a hailstone or comet, or gobstopper.

Then look at the lines in this rock. If it is from a whale, it is a small piece of a super sized nugget.

Cool find Sherm! Too bad you couldn't pick it up anyway, you'd have scrubbing stones for life.

Nice bugs too!

Willy

The sediment lines are what make me think pumice as well. It was fun to think about it though. Knowing where i was and tide movement i bet I could find the shoreline it's washed up on.

Sperm whales are huge, and I bet they have a big stomach. However unlikely it could well be just a small chunk of a much larger piece.

My take is that if you go get it you'll end up with one of two things: Either you'll have a cool lightweight rock, that will make a great conversation piece, that you can put in front of your house as landscaping, or you'll have enough cash to get a cool new house to landscape.

I'd say it's worth a second look either way.

Jim

I say half digested sea turtle shell. :D

Pumice comes from lava flow, no sediment lines. There were so many kayaks searching the mouth of the bay yesterday the Coast Guard had to come and disperse us so the USS Nimitz could get back to its dock.

hmmmmmm........wasn't something like this in a movie once???

True,
However it can have the look of a sedimentary rock, as lava flows layer on top of each other.
There are pumice layers in the Japanese islands and Taiwan that have thin layers of pumice strata.
I guess you could call it an igneous, sedimentary rock.
There is a chance this rock floated from the far west side of the Pacific. Especially during this El Nino.

Funny that there were so many boats out looking for it!
Sherm your post went viral!

Willy

The number of boats searching for it today was ridiculous. It basically shut down the entrance to the bay. I heard one cargo ship threatening to plow through but he never did. A woman on a Harbor Cruise went into labor and they couldn't get back to port so her baby girl was delivered near Ballast Point. Even the Navy and Coast Guard and Harbor Patrol guys were searching for it. Oh well, I hope someone finds it soon.

This will make for a great April fools! Having a ton of people out there searching for fools gold.

sorry for "jacking" your thread Sherm.....