Believe it or not, have you technically ever sprayed ‘poop’ on your body?
Whale droppings or whale vomit or its scientific name ‘ambergris’ is the main ingredient in the manufacture of perfume.
Ambergris is a squid's beak bound by fatty secretions that eventually grow in the intestines of some sperm whales into a hard, rock-gray lump.
The hardened lumps produce the smell of chemical compounds that vary with some smelling like mushrooms, the smell of tobacco, the smell of feces or the smell of dry grass.
It becomes the basic ingredient for perfume creators to create a strong and long -lasting perfume scent.
Some perfume companies have used ambergris base in their fragrances and some sell the perfume for up to RM2,000 a bottle.
The price of ambergris became very expensive because only 1% of sperm whales were able to produce it and due to whale sperm hunting until it became endangered, the value of ambergris continued to soar with the price of a kilo of ambergris reaching RM65,000.
In 2006, a married couple found 14.5 kilograms of whale droppings worth almost RM1.2 million.
Want to know where to find the whale droppings? Want to know why some call it ‘poop’ some call it ‘vomit’?
