![]() So what could it be? I decided to take about a teaspoon of the crumbs and melt them down and, when I saw the result, I had an idea. There was a distinct sizzling sound and a small puff of smoke. ![]() When I carried this out, the material did melt and leave a residue but it was a lighter brown material. If you heat a wire or needle to red hot and stick it into ambergris to about a centimetre’s depth, it melts into an opaque liquid the colour of dark chocolate and leaves a tacky residue on the wire/needle. He very kindly relayed a test that would prove whether it was the highly prized ambergris – or not. John Ford, DFO’s head of Cetacean Research at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo. I wanted to be sure, so I contacted the wonderful Dr. But, there were no bits of squid beaks nor was there a really distinct musky odour. They dropped one and it fragmented and crumbled, some pieces darker and clearer than others. They found two masses, each about the size of a goose egg. coast and the material was resinous, less dense than water and looked like some of the images of ambergris I could find online. Was the family’s mysterious material the highly valuable ambergris? It seemed possible. ![]() Some scientists believe it does get regurgitated (vomited up) if the piece is particularly large. Apparently, when “fresh”, ambergris smells more like it comes from the anus. However, ambergris may not be “whale vomit” at all, but rather, it may come with “whale poop”. It is believed to be caused by the beaks of the giant squid irritating the sperm whale’s intestines. So how and why do sperm whales create ambergris? ( Click here for a detailed “The Marine Detective” posting on the sperm whale). You can imagine what knowledge gaps there are for an animal that dives to such great depths and for so long up to about an hour. We humans have so much to learn about whales that are far less deep diving. It has a head up to 1/3 of its body ( Physeter macrocephalus = big head) and can dive to depths of 3,000 m. The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale species. Yes, sperm whales used to be intensely hunted and the hope of collecting ambergris was one of the reasons why. Apparently it was even believed to cure the plague. It has also been used as food flavouring and medicine. It has a musky, very distinct odour and has been used in perfume as a fixative (to stop it all from evaporating quickly). ambergris is extremely valuable apparently worth up to $20,000 USD per kg. ambergris (pronounced “amber-grease” from the French for gray amber), a substance produced in the intestines of sperm whales. I was amazed at how they had narrowed down what the strange looking masses might be. Their email had the entertaining subject line of “Whale Puke – Hopefully?” and contained pictures of what they had found. Recently, I was contacted by a local family about their very unique find on a beach on Southwest Vancouver Island. It is uncommon, found in less than 5% of whale carcasses.Īmbrein, an odourless alcohol, is extracted from ambergris and used to make a perfume's scent last longer.Mystery mass – ambergris? 3 inches wide (7.6 cm) Some believe that the whale regurgitates the mass, earning it its well-known nickname 'whale vomit'.īut, Richard Sabin, curator of marine mammals at the museum believes "that ambergris forms in the intestines and passes along with faecal matter, forming an obstruction in the rectum". It is thought that ambergris protects the whale's internal organs from the sharp squid beaks. They slowly become a solid mass of ambergris, growing inside the whale over many years. In rare circumstances these parts move into the whale's intestines and bind together, explains the Natural History Museum. In most cases the indigestible elements of their prey, such as the beaks and pens, are vomited out before digestion. Sperm whales eat large quantities of cephalopods such as squid and cuttlefish. However, it was not until large-scale whaling began in the 1800s that the identity of its sole producer, the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), was uncovered. It was so mysterious that for years it was assumed to be hardened sea foam or large bird poo. Ambergris has been called the treasure of the sea and floating gold.įossilised evidence of the substance dates back 1.75 million years, and it is likely that humans have been using it for more than 1,000 years.
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