Hi there.
What is ounce for ounce more valueable than gold?
Since you probably read the title you should already know the answer.
Todays video is about spermwhale poop.
More specifically about ambergris - which isnt regular whale dung but a very special
kind of substance that is the result of an astonishing decade-long journey.
The journey of this piece started a long time ago in the deepest parts of our oceans, thousands
of feed below the surface in the mouth of an animal that is about as mysterious as the
habitat it lives in.
The Giant Squid.
As swift as an arrow, up to 10m(32ft) long and armed with 8 arms and 2 additional feeding
tentacles, each of which riddled with hundrets of serrated sucker rings these giants are
without a doubt one of the most successfull predators of the deep.
They process their food with a razor-sharp parrot-like beak at the center of their tentacles,
capable of cutting even the toughest catch into bite-sized pieces.
But even all of this cant protect them from the biggest toothed predator on the planet
- the sperm whale.
These whales have specialized in hunting these and other deep sea squids - but how exactly
they do this is still mostly a mystery.
It was once hypothesised that they used their powerful ultrasound clicks to stun their prey.
After all, at up to 235 decibels these clicks are the most powerful biological sounds in
the animal kingdom and would be intense enough to cause permant hearing loss and even potentiall
deadly lung ruptures if they were at a frequency humans could hear.
Experiments, however, have shown that these clicks not only not stun squids, squids seem
to not even be able to detect them.
Instead spermwhales seems to only use them to locate their pray when hunting.
First with broad loud long-range clicks to scan their sourrounds and then after identifying
a target with a more focussed beam of clicks.
The closer they get to their prey the faster and quiter these clicks become.
The significantly increased click rate during the last few meters of their appraoch, also
called the buzz, likey enhances the resolution and allows for nearly realtime updates of
the prey location.
how the sperm whale can keep track of the squid when it drops below the sonar beam and
until it reaches the mouth is however, still a mystery.
once in reach of the mouth the whales likely use suction feeding to catch the prey, similarly
to dolphins and beaked whales.
All these animals can create a powerful suction through rapid movements in head, neck muscles
and mouth regions also called jerks which they use to quite litearlly vacuum in their
pray.
Still, given that these battles take place thousands of meters beneath the ocean surface
is really difficult for scientists to shed a light on them.
how exactly these giants hunt the immensense amounts of squid they need is depite the progess
of recent years still poorly understood.
Weighing up to 60 metric tons(63 tons) an adult spermwhale roughly needs one metric
ton (1.1 tons) of food per day.
This is about as much as one african elephant bull a week.
So its not surprising that at any given time you can find the remains of one thousand and
more squids in the 4 stomachs of a sperm whales which consequently also means thousands of
indegestable beaks as well as the pens and eyelenses of the squids which are also indigestable.
These items are normally vomited into the ocean when they fill up the stomach to a certain
point.
This happens in intervals of about 7-10 days and is similarly to cats vomiting hair balls,
completely normal.
In rare cases, however - scientists belief it only occurs in 1 out of 100 spermwhales
- this progress doesnt work like its supposed to.
Instead, large amounts of these materials accumulate in the last stomach where they
congregate into a large undigestible mass of squid beaks, squid pens and parasitic worms,
which are found in just about all whale stomachs.
Eventually parts of this mass - which cant be vomitted anymore - will leak into the intestine.
What exactly happens to the lump there is still debated.
The best theory is that while mass is slowly carried through the intestine it gets together
with feces engulfed by a wax-like substance secreted to protect the whales digestive systems
from the sharp objects.
Smaller chunks are probably excreted and find their way into the ocean that way but if the
mass is too large already it builds up infront of the rectum and cannot be passed.
Because the intestines of sperm whales arent meant for solid feces the sphincter muscle
simply cant relax sufficiently enough.
At the beginning however this isnt a severe problem.
thorugh a local increase in tension and water-absorbing capacity the lump get compressed and shaped
into a smooth round clump that hampers defecation but doesnt completely prevent it.
Scientists believe sperm whales can live years maybe even decades with such a boulder before
it becomes life-threateing.
But because over time the lump grows larger and larger as layer by layer more fecal matter
and more of the waxy substance are added to it eventually the walls of the rectum become
so distended that they rupture, which inevitably kills the whale.
In this case sharks and other scavangers will release the ambergris into the sea.
But this is only the beginning of its journey.
for the the fresh lump to transform from the soft, brown, fecal-smelling rough diamond
into one for the most valueble natural substances in the world it takes years sometimes even
decades in the ocean, during which the boulder ages like a fine wine.
Over time sunlight salt and water as well as bacteria and enzymes on the inside of the
lump change its molecular structure, clean and dry it.
The endresult is a much smaller and lighter lump with a pale grey or yellowish color that
could easily be mistaken for a stone when held in hand and posseses only a slight yet
distinctive scent.
Ambergris is usually found washed up on the beach either by lucky walkers or by professional
ambergris hunters.
But fishermen too find these strange lumps in their nets from time to time.
Of course its usually quite the surprise when people find out just how valuebale the find
really is.
But what exactly is it that makes Ambergris so valueable?
The main reason is of course its rarity - after years in the intestines of just a few sperm
whales and possibly decades on the open ocean the chances to find even one lump are understandebly
small.
This, together with its high demand, particularly by high end perfume makers, explains why its
still on of the most expensive and sought after materials.
Ambergris has been prized for over a thousand years because of its distinctive smell and
taste and its alleged medicinal properties The Greek supposedly added it to their wine
and the aztec to their tobacco.
During the middle ages in Europe it was used as as medication for headaches, colds, epilepsy.
It was even believed sniffing amberergris would protect you from the plague.
King Charles II reportatly loved eating it on eggs and in Aegypt it was added to coffee
as an aphrodisiac.
In Asia Ambergris was traded like spices, burned in religious ceremonies and used in
traditional medicine.
But most notably it was, and still is, prized by perfume makers all over the world for its
marine, animalistic and sweet scent but espeically for its ability to make scents last longer,
which is probably the most important criterium of a good perfume.
Today, however, because of its incredibly rarity and the legal problems it presents
most perfume makers have switched to synthetic alternatives but a few high-end perfume brands
like chanel still use it to this day.
What makes Ambergris problematic legally is that when commercial whaling was outlawed
in many parts of the world, the possession and trade of whale products, which sometimes
included ambergris, was simililarly outlawed.
For example in the United States.
This is despite the fact that that ambergris cant really be harvested from dead whales,
for the reasons mentioned earlier.
Despite these restrictions, the demand is still high for the floading gold which means
that the few pieces found each year continue to be traded for rediculous amounts.
Depending on the quality and the age of the lump gram prices usually range between $20
to $50 which means Sperm whale poop is still one of the most valueable substances on the
planet.
In 2006, a couple walking on the beach in Australia found a chunk of ambergris weighing
over 14kg(30lbs), which netted them $300.000.
In 2013, a dog walker found a 2.7kg(6lbs) lump washed up on a British beach that was
valued by experts at up to $200.000 But the most astonishing find of recent times
made three Omani fishermen when they scooped an 80kg(180lbs) piece of ambergris out of
the ocean that was values at $2.5 million - $3 million.
Given the sums involved these stories usally get picked up by local news outlets.
Sadly however, most of the resulting articles continue to spread the popular misconception
that ambergris is whale vomit - an early hypothesis for the origins of these lumps that can be
ruled out almost entirely today.
Before commercial whaling revealed the true origins of ambergris, people had many explanations
for where it came from or what it was.
Originally It was believed ambergris and amber both came from tree sap, hence the similar
names.
Other early explanations included bird droppings, dried sea foam or sea mushrooms, beehives
that had fallen into the ocean and crocodile droppings
So, if you ever walk across the beach and stumble across a stone that has no earthly
business being there - a stone that feels slighty too light for its size and has a strange
scent you've never smeller before.
Remember to take it home with you.
Thanks for watching