I found this object on a beach in northern Tasmania (see photo). It weighs 60 grams, is very hard to the touch and it stinks. Somebody suggested to me, because of the evil smell, that it might be ambergris. Is it ambergris? And if not, what could it be?
鈥� This looks 鈥� and apparently smells 鈥� like the secretion of a sperm whale that has yet to turn into ambergris, which begins life in the animal鈥檚 digestive tract. It is soft and white when fresh, sometimes with black streaks running through it. Floating on the surface of the sea in lumps of up to 50 kilograms, it smells a bit like human waste.
After a few months or years, it eventually turns into ambergris 鈥� grey lumps with a much sweeter aroma. Before was developed as a synthetic alternative, ambergris was used to make perfumes and still is in some expensive examples.
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Mike Follows, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK
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