$20K for a pound of whale puke? People are getting rich off it.
2021-02-04
Whale vomit is one of the world's most expensive substances, and it's more common than you think.
If this sounds like a joke, it's not, and people are really getting rich from finding chunks of whale barf in the open ocean and occasionally washed ashore on ordinary beaches. The trick, it seems, is knowing what to look for.
Ambergris, also sometimes called ambergrease, is formed from a secretion of the bile duct in the intestines of the sperm whale. When sperm whales eat large quantities of cephalodopds like squid, the indigestible elements of that prey ends up vomited up. That greasy, stinky secretion is made up of hot, liquid gease that cools off and solidifies as it hits cooler ocean waters, and then floats or washes to nearby coastlines. It's called "grease gold" by many because these large chunks often fetch $20,000 or more per pound at auction.
This impressive chunk of ambergris, for example, was stumbled upon by a local fisherman earlier this month and auctioned off for over $300,000 dollars. This glob of whale puke literally just sold for the price of the average American home. Digest that.
How can you find some?
We knew that question was coming. It's a down economy, and by sheer coincidence, both bills and whale puke keep coming. You've hit the lottery jackpot of potential if you're near a coast. In fact, several stories of gross blobs washing up on New York beaches have ended up with some tens of thousands of dollars in the bank, donations to marine research, and squeals of delight. This guy in Thailand found a chunk worth over $230,000 USD. This British kid found a big piece worth over $63,000 in 2013, which if you adjusted for inflation, would be far more now.
Follow me to see more articles like this.
...
The point is that you're likely to find ambergris just about anywhere sperm whales may be, or nearby coastlines. In the United States, sperm whales are seldom found close to shore, but are distributed throughout the Atlantic and Pacific regions, with blobs of stinky ambergris tending to wash ashore in colder areas more often. They'll come closer to the coastline if there's a continental break or divide, which leaves areas like Long Island, New York and Cape Cod, Massachusetts ripe spots for sperm whale watching and ambergris discoveries.
"Sperm whales, known for their deep diving, are found off New York at the continental shelf break and occasionally in the shallow waters near Montauk and Block Island. They are the only toothed large whale and can dive to over 2,000 feet for up to 45 minutes. Sperm whales have the largest brain of any animal to have ever lived and are named for the waxy substance found in their heads (spermaceti) that was used in candles and ointments when whaling was still practiced."
It's important to remember that ambergris, whale gold, or blubbery stinky stuff (whatever you want to call it), is primarily found -- not harvested. Whales produce and expel the stuff rather quickly. That means attacking, provoking, or hunting actual sperm whales will likely leave you just as poor as when you started, and you'll also be looking at jail time for harming an endangered species. You'll do far better patrolling the beaches of known ambergris sites, like Montauk, during down seasons when the shorelines are relatively empty and few are disturbing whatever washes ashore.
Why do people pay so much for whale puke?
Good question. It seems a bit counterintuitive, doesn't it? Who wants puke, anyway? The fragrance industry is obsessed with ambergris, it seems, and for good reason. It's pretty hard to replicate in a lab (it's been synthesized, but not without fault), and the key compound in ambergris, ambrein, is made exclusively by sperm whales breaking down squid beaks. Genuine, natural ambergris is one of the most valuable raw materials in the perfume world. It stinks like, well, what you'd imagine whale puke to smell like (marine-infused poop at best), but when it burns or makes contact with even a mild amount of heat like a human's body, it creates a soft musky sweet scent that's revered by some of the top fragrance houses in the world. The quality of the ambergris is directly related to the oxidation duration it has undergone, often being compared to fine wine. The longer it has been oxidized, the better the quality, and the higher the price tag a piece will fetch.
In fact, if you've ever admired the scents of Christian Dior, Bvlgari, or Tom Ford, you've probably already smelled a bit of whale vomit and maybe even loved it. That's okay, we get it. There's a fine line between gagging and greatness. Ambergris is more than just the scent of, "new-mown hay, the damp woodsy fragrance of a fern-copse, and the faintest possible perfume of the violet," as the New York Times described it in 1895, though. Nostradamus believe it made men more virile, and that was before anyone even realized it was from whales. Casanova reportedly added it to his desserts. King Charles II of England's favorite meal was eggs with ambergris, and Marie Antoinette? Well, she was known for wearing her "magical" ambergris perfume.It wasn't until 1724, however, that people even knew ambergris came from actual whales and not a concoction of unseen mermaids or witches, or magical fairies. A Boston doctor, Zabdiel Boylton, revealed in a scientific journal of the time that it came from the bowels of the sperm whale, and that amerbris' origins had actually been discovered by Nantucket whales who cut nearly 25 pounds of the greasy stuff out of a recently killed whale.
Perhaps the most mysterious part of the ambergris market though rests on who is actually paying these outlandish sums. While several specific marketplaces exist, the world's largest fragrance houses for the most part now say they're committed to using synthetics for production, scarcity, and animal welfare reasons. Yet still, you'll find large and small hunks of ambergris, especially those lighter in color because they're of higher oxididative value, trading at tens of thousands of dollars without so much as the blink of an eye.
Have your own ambergris or whale encounter to share? Leave it in the comments.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
