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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Briton Finds 'Rare Whale Vomit' Worth 50,000 Euros
2013-02-01
[An Nahar] A British man has been offered 50,000 euros for a strange-smelling rock his dog found on a beach, which is likely a rare form of whale vomit used in perfumes, the BBC reported Thursday.

Ken Wilman was walking his dog Madge in the coastal town of Morecambe in northwest England when she began "poking at a rather large stone" with a waxy texture and yellowish color.

At first he left it on the beach, but "something triggered in my mind," Wilman said, prompting him to go back and retrieve the object, which he believes is a piece of ambergris, a substance found in the digestive systems of sperm whales.

Whales sometimes spew up ambergris, which floats on water and has been highly prized for centuries. It is used in perfume-making for the musky fragrance it acquires as it ages -- but newer ambergris is foul-smelling.

"When I picked it up and smelled it I put it back down again and I thought 'urgh'," Wilman told the BBC.

"It has a musky smell, but the more you smell it the nicer the smell becomes."

He is waiting for tests to confirm his find is ambergris, nicknamed "floating gold," but says he has been offered 50,000 euros (£43,000, $68,000) for it by a French dealer.

"It's worth so much because of its particular properties," Andrew Kitchener, principal curator of vertebrates at the National Museum of Scotland, told the broadcaster.

"It's a very important base for perfumes and it's hard to find any artificial substitute for it."

The substance gets a mention in the classic 1851 whaling novel Moby Dick, where author Herman Melville writes: "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! Yet so it is."
Posted by:Fred

#7  Picture = 1000 words - could BURP be one of them ?

Ambergris (pron.: /ˈæmbərɡriːs/ or pron.: /ˈæmbərɡrɪs/, Latin: Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, ambergrease or grey amber) is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish color produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.

Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. However, as it ages, it acquires a sweet, earthy scent commonly likened to the fragrance of rubbing alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency. The principal historical use of ambergris was as a fixative in perfumery, though it has now been largely displaced by synthetics.

I would like to have provided you with an Olfactory link to fecal odor, but I think some of you are capable of providing your own
:-O
Posted by: Jaick Ulaigum3043   2013-02-01 15:27  

#6  Opportunity knocking for those with the rosie o'donnel seasons.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2013-02-01 11:57  

#5  OK got it - ambergris. That rings a bell. I didn't read the whole article. I hate this new form of pseudo-journalism ... where reporters take well-known info and disguise it to make it sound like a discovery. It's annoying.
Posted by: Raider   2013-02-01 09:42  

#4  right...just hang out at a Hometown Buffet on a Friday Night...
Posted by: Frank G   2013-02-01 07:38  

#3  This "whale vomit" is amber gris ie the most coveted asset the Moby Dick men were looking for.
Posted by: JFM   2013-02-01 03:15  

#2  You gotta be BS'ing me ... this can't be real.
Posted by: Raider   2013-02-01 00:48  

#1  First, a righteous "EEEEEEWWWWWW", followed soon by a righteous, PETER GRIFFIN-ESQUE "YOU BASTARD"!

As per any good Weekend King-fu Movie, I DEMAND REVENGE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-02-01 00:21  

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