A ten-year-old vacationing in Wales stumbles across a lump worth nearly $6,000. A 67-year-old New York native receives a candlelike rock in the mail from her 80-year-old sister and discovers she may be $18,000 richer. All because a whale had a bit of indigestion.
That upset stomach creates ambergris, a rare substance that has been highly valued for thousands of years as an ingredient in perfume and pharmaceuticals. Ambergris originates in the intestines of male sperm whales after they dine on squid, whose hard, pointy beaks abrade the whales' innards. Scientists believe that the whales protect themselves by secreting a fatty substance in their intestines to surround the beaks. Eventually the animals cast out a huge lump, up to hundreds of pounds at a time.
But don't refer to it as "whale vomit"; scientists postulate that whales do not expel ambergris through their mouths. No one has ever seen a sperm whale excrete ambergris, although sperm whale expert Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, admits that it is assumed the voiding takes place as fecal excretion, because when first cast out, he says, "Well, it smells more like the back end than the front."
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Viscous, black, stinky blocks of freshly expelled ambergris float on the ocean's surface. Sun, air and salt water oxidize the mass, and water continually evaporates. It hardens, breaks into smaller chunks and eventually becomes grey and waxy, embedded with small black squid beaks. The weathered chunks exude a sweet, earthy aroma likened to tobacco, pine or mulch. The quality—and value—of any given chunk depend on how much time it had spent floating or otherwise aging, says expert ambergris broker Bernard Perrin, because "it ages like fine wine."
For thousands of years this sea treasure has been highly prized. Middle Easterners historically powdered and ingested it to increase strength and virility, combat heart and brain ailments, or to spice food and drink. The Chinese called it "dragon's spittle fragrance." Ancient Egyptians burned it as incense. A British medical treatise from the Middle Ages informs readers that ambergris can banish headaches, colds and epilepsy, among other ailments. And the Portuguese took over the Maldives in the sixteenth century in part to gain access to the island's rich bounty of the redolent stuff.
The Arabic anbar refers to this very whale-based substance and is the root of the word amber. Centuries ago the French employed amber gris and amber jaune (gray amber and yellow amber) to distinguish between animal-based ambergris and what today has become the standard meaning: the golden-hued vegetal resin.
Like other animal-based perfume components (such as musk) ambergris has a scent all its own—derived from its chemical component ambrein—that it imparts to popular perfumes such as Chanel No. 5. It also enriches the other olfactory notes of a perfume, much as salt enhances flavors and spices, and, most importantly, it prolongs a perfume's other scents. As odor chemist George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia explains, ambergris molecules are lipophilic (fat-loving), as are perfume molecules, but the ambergris molecules are larger and heavier. "The odor molecules have a high affinity for the other lipophilic molecules, so they stay associated with the ambergris molecules and don't go into the vapor phase all at once," Preti says.
American perfume companies no longer mix ambergris into their fragrances, most likely because of confusing legalities surrounding its sale here. Internationally, however, the trade is legal and Perrin has no problem finding French perfume companies to buy his stock. "We also sell it to a royal family in the Middle East and they use it as an aphrodisiac. Apparently they take some milk, some honey, and grind up small quantities of the amber and put that in as well," he says.
Many aspects of ambergris remain a mystery. Why is ambergris more commonly found in the southern hemisphere, though sperm whales range all the world's seas? Why is it only sperm whales—and particularly male sperm whales—that create it? How did ancient Middle Easterners decide to start using it for medicine, or decide that "eau de whale" would be a compelling fragrance?
Some, but not all, scent qualities of ambergris have been synthesized, so the original remains valuable. With sperm whale numbers down from the 1.1 million estimated prior to whaling to approximately 350,000 today, less ambergris floats on the seas. Still, Whitehead says the population is slowly recovering, and even though most findings turn out to be rocks or wax or other ocean detritus, beachcombers and fishermen continue to scour the sands and waves in hope of stumbling across a weathered chunk of this sea gold.
Ambergris (/ˈæmbərɡriːs/ or /ˈæmbərɡrɪs/; Latin: ambra grisea; Old French: ambre gris), ambergrease, or grey amber is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor.
is extremely valuable because of its rarity. However, in some countries, including the United States, endangered-species legislation makes it illegal to buy or sell the stuff.
“It's an extremely valuable substance that's known for its unique scent and fixative qualities,” November Nichols, perfumer and owner of Chémin, told POPSUGAR last week. “It enhances the longevity and depth of the fragrances that it's added to.”
Ambergris is often described as one of the world's strangest natural occurrences. It is produced by sperm whales and has been used for centuries, but for many years its origin remained a mystery. Ambergris has been a unique phenomenon for millennia.
Here's why ambergris is so expensive. A professor found a lump of ambergris, or "floating gold," worth 500,000 euros in a dead whale. The rare substance, which is normally found floating in the sea, is used in high-end perfumes. Here's what makes it so expensive.
The Sperm Whale is protected under Schedule II of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and therefore, it is illegal to sell, transfer, possess or trade in ambergris in India. Globally, Sperm Whales are listed in Appendix I of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
High-end perfumers use ambergris because it helps a scent attach to a person's skin. The substance is solid by weight, and a chunk found in the Canary Islands earlier this year weighing 21 pounds is valued at nearly $500,000. In 2021, fishermen found a 280-pound chunk of whale vomit valued at around $1.5 million.
It has been extracted by whalers since the 17th century for human use in cosmetics, textiles, and candles. Left to right: A sample of solid raw spermaceti, a spermaceti wax candle and a bottle of sperm oil.
Ambergris has been highly valued by perfume makers as a fixative that allows the scent to last much longer, although it has been mostly replaced by synthetic ambroxide.
A massive chunk of "floating gold" has been found in the belly of a dead whale beached on the Spanish island of La Palma. The highly valuable substance — called ambergris — is a waxy material secreted by sperm whales when they swallow indigestible material such as squid beaks.
"Ambergris has a very particular smell, pleasant in a musky/chocolaty/tobacco kind of way." He says that many of the common substances mistaken for ambergris can be sea sponges or rubber. It's not uncommon to be presented with lumps of old dog turd.
Soft black or fresh ambergris is normally jet black in colour though it may also develop a thin powdery white coating (oxidation) on the surface. It can be found in flat strips and in larger lumps which may resemble a flattened cow pat in appearance. It has a matching unpleasant odour of scented cow dung.
The olfactory test is undoubtedly the best way to identify ambergris. The amber fragrance characteristic of mature ambergris is unique, if you've had the opportunity to smell it, you'll never forget it again.
How much is ambergris worth? The value of ambergris can vary. Higher qualities of the substance can go for more than $27 a gram, but as it is more than often found in huge chunks, those who find it walk away with a much larger lump sum.
Whale vomit has been used in some expensive perfumes as it allows the scent to last longer. Amberin, an odourless alcohol, is believed to make a perfume's scent last longer. On exposure to a certain type of activated oxygen, amberin creates fragrance compounds that are lighter and more volatile.
Only sperm whales produce viable ambergris. Though it is generally believed to be vomit, it is also known to be expelled out the other end of a whale. In its pure form, ambergris has a fecal scent, though as it hardens over time, it takes on a sweeter, earthy scent.
While some people are quick to nickname ambergris “whale vomit,” scientists say that it's not regurgitated. Rather, it's expelled through the whale's rectum.
In other words, Ambergris is also known as 'whale vomit' which is produced to shield the whale's stomach from sharp things. Ambergris is eventually ejected and can be discovered floating in the ocean or washed up on the shore which is later used in the high-end luxurious fragrances.
Introduction: My name is Pres. Lawanda Wiegand, I am a inquisitive, helpful, glamorous, cheerful, open, clever, innocent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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