The substance becomes a pungent, waxy mess -- but it is extremely useful in making high end fragrances linger on a wearer, when purified. [When heated in alcohol, then allowed to cool, and then oxidized -- the raw material becomes an odorless, colorless and highly valuable fixative for fragrances on the skin.]
So it is that a group of Yemeni fishermen. . . are now millionaires. They hauled up a particularly stinky dead sperm whale last month, and instead of just cutting it loose, one old salt had the men tow it to shore -- where, due to how bad it smelled -- he suspected there might be at least some ambergris in its digestive tract. He was right -- a huge mother lode -- some 275 pounds of it. It was sold for $1.5 million to a UAE buyer. At Yemeni standards of living, the entire crew is able to. . . retire, now. Here's the story, in full -- and a bit more:
. . .A 35-man fishing crew working off Yemen netted the find of a lifetime when they hauled in about $1.5 million worth of whale vomit.
Whale vomit is also known as ambergris and is an odorous substance found only in the digestive systems of sperm whales. According to the UK's Natural History Museum, the substance is often called the "treasure of the sea" and "floating gold" because of how rare it is. . . .
The substance was a rare find. The fishing boat just happened to haul up a sperm whale's carcass while fishing in the Gulf of Aden, per The India Times. While they were towing it back to shore, the crew determined there might be ambergris in the whale's stomach, because of the strong smell of marine fecal odor that the substance emits. . . .
Grinning ear to ear -- bio-science, in this case, the bio-science of marine life decay. . . is astonishing. It also teaches that one should not always avoid something wafting. . . an awful odor. But most times. . . one should. Heh.
Updated: Here after midnight, it occurs to me that I should clarify the above largely playful post in three important respects: (i) it is unlawful to hunt sperm whales under US and EU law; they are a protected species (and it is unclear whether even their waste products may lawfully be sold in the EU and US); (ii) only about one in one hundred sperm whales will have any appreciable mass of ambergris in their digestive tracts (even at death); and (iii) the purified form, called ambroxide, can now be manufactured entirely synthetically, in a lab.
So, do not go hunting whale -- for supposed fortunes. If you "succeed", against these long odds -- you will only earn. . . an orange jumpsuit.
नमस्ते
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