For thousands of years, ambergris was staple in perfumes.
The Ancient Egyptians burned the substance as incense, and modern Egyptians smoke it in cigarettes.
Ambergris was also used to flavor food and drink.
A serving of eggs and ambergris was reportedly King Charles II of England’s favorite dish.
The ancient Chinese thought it was dragons spit.
Others believed it was seabird poop, or some kind of marine fungus.
It wasnt until 1724 that Boston physician Zabdiel Boylston finally uncovered the truth.
Ambergris is whale shit (or vomit).
Ambergris is formed in the intestinal tract of sperm whales.
Sperm whale expert Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University suspects the substance is defecated.
Well, it smells more like the back end than the front end, he says.
The longer the ambergris remains at sea, the more it incorporates the scents of the sea.
A mother sperm whale and her calf.
Photo:Gabriel Barathieu/Wikimedia
Eventually the lumps wash ashore, wherein they are collected and sold at lucrative prices.
The high price is due to the rarity of the substance.
Instead of waiting for a lump to wash ashore, many collectors seek out for whale carcasses.
Ambergris is difficult to identify.
Its that smell that has captivated the perfume industry.
But even the smell is difficult to describe.
It was a bit of a let-down, to be honestit didnt match the hype.
But its a lot better on the skin, I learned.
The smell, on the skin, is both subtle and somehow radiant.
It smells how warm skin feels.
Its remarkable, and its sheer and its uber sexy.
Photo:Peter Kaminski/Flickr
The scarcity of ambergris and its varying quality has led to search for an alternative.
Since the 1940s chemists have synthesized compounds like ambrox and cetalox that mimic ambergris.
But not everyone is so enthusiastic.
Its like watching a Beatles cover band instead of the real thing, Kemp says.
It gets close but lacks something indefinably important.
Kemp believes that many major perfume houses still purchase real ambergris, but Saskia Wilson-Brown disagree.
I sincerely doubt many people use real ambergrislet alone perfume houses!
The supply chain is too unreliable for the big guys to rely on it.
Yet, somebody is buying them for outlandish sum and Kemp isnt sure who the buyers are.
I have no idea where most of the ambergris goes, Kemp says.
It costs $10,000 a pound.
And people are willing to spend that much money on it.
But then it disappears again.
Several members of the fishing crew purchased new homes, cars, and boats off the windfall.
