Whale $#!* Yields Beach Walk Bonanza

Boy finds a bonanza in whale vomit

An 8-year-old boy in England could be up to $63,000 richer, thanks to a piece of solidified whale vomit he picked up on the beach. The chunk may look like a yellow-brownish rock, but it's actually a primo piece of ambergris, an expensive perfume ingredient that is, um, spewed out by whales.

Charlie Naysmith stumbled upon the loaf-sized lump at Hengistbury Head, on the southern coast of England, the Bournemouth Echo reported over the weekend.

As far as Charlie was concerned, it was just a seaside curiosity. But after doing some research, he and his family determined that the curious lump could be worth somewhere between £10,000 and £40,000 ($15,850 to $63,350).

"We have discovered it is quite rare and are waiting for some more information from marine biology experts," the boy's father, Alex, told the Echo.

A boy and his whale dreck

Devote readers (Mom and Joel) might remember that I found a large chunk of something on the beach that I was desperately hoping was ambergris back in March of 2011.  It turned out to be just a large chunk of rendered animal fat, much to the disgust of my retirement account.

Ambergris is a pretty weird substance.  Formed in the intestines of Sperm Whales, for purposes known only to them, it apparently forms around objects, largely squid beaks, from Sperm Whales main food.  It's use is related to perfume, apparently one of the compounds in it helps to fix smells:

The scent of ambergris is what makes it so valuable. The substance has been used as an incense, fragrance, flavoring, remedy or aphrodisiac in many cultures, going back to ancient Egypt and China. Herman Melville devoted a whole chapter of "Moby Dick" (Chapter 92) to a discussion of ambergris and how highly prized it was in 19th-century society. "Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale!" Melville wrote.

More recently, ambergris — or ambrein, a compound extracted from ambergris — has been used as a fixative or fragrance amplifier rather than the main ingredient in perfumes. Ambergris' selling price has been quoted at $10 to $50 per gram, depending on the quality of the specimen. (The Echo estimates that the lump found at Hengistbury Head weighs about 600 grams, which suggests that Charlie shouldn't count on building a $63,000 house for his animals.)

Still, if he got somewhere in the middle, $30 a gram, his 600 grams would yield $18,000; not bad for a walk on the beach.