You may have heard the story about eight-year-old Charlie Naysmith from Dorset, UK, who was walking along the beach with his dad and found what looked to be a very odd rock. He and his dad used Google to help identify it as ambergris. Weighing more than a pound, it is said to be worth up to U.S. $63,000.
Ambergris is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull gray or blackish color produced in the digestive system of and regurgitated or secreted by sperm whales. But why does it have such a high value?
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Perfume makers use this whale by-product as a fixative in their perfumes. Fixatives help reduce the rate of evaporation, ultimately making the perfume last longer. Ambergris is desirable because of its attractive scent, but because it is so rare, ambergris is also very expensive.
No other whale besides sperm whales produce it, and when the whale burps it up, it's somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Someone finds a piece of the stuff on a beach somewhere every few years, tops. That makes it extremely valuable.
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