A winter storm hurled valuable chunks of fossilized tree resin onto a beach in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, sparking a rush to collect the "Baltic gold."
Golden Storm: Winter Waves Push Amber Onto Russian Beach
This picture shows some of the scores of men who waded into the surf buffeting Pionersky Beach, in Russia's western exclave of Kaliningrad, on January 18.
The men are using nets to scoop out debris churned up by a storm that lashed the Baltic Sea on January 17. Winds that day gusted up to 82 kilometers per hour.
For a lucky few, chunks of raw amber like this picked out of the storm-driven debris make wading into the wintry surf more than worth it.
A June 2021 file photo of an amber-processing factory in Kaliningrad.
Amber is fossilized tree sap that has been squeezed into gem-like chunks overs tens of millions of years, either underground or beneath the sea. It is found in areas where prehistoric plants similar to pine trees once grew.
File photo of an amber-bead necklace in Kaliningrad.
Amber has been treasured throughout human history for its translucent, caramel beauty.
A fragment of amber photographed on Pionersky Beach on January 18. Around 90 percent of the world’s extractable amber is estimated to be in Kaliningrad.
A man wearing a dry suit heads to shore with a net full of debris to sort through on January 18.
The gathering of loose amber churned up by storms on the Baltic Sea dates back centuries. A map from the early 1600s that includes the beach seen in these photographs notes that “when the north wind is blowing, amber is gathered here.”
A file photo of amber hunters being buffeted by waves after an October 2017 storm at an unspecified location in Kaliningrad.
A policeman in Pionersky told RFE/RL by telephone that using heavy equipment such as water jets, that blast into the sand or soil of Kaliningrad to uncover amber, is illegal -- with modest fines handed out. But hand-gathering with nets, as happens most winters after storms, is permitted.
Amber catchers take a breather on the beach on January 18.
Kaliningrad amber is valued at more than $1,000 per kilo, and there is a flourishing black market in its sale and export. China is the world's largest purchaser of the "Baltic gold."