Once when diving in the Maldives, the Beetle noticed the boat
captain looking very interested in some strange rank smelly stuff
floating on the surface of the ocean. “Whale vomit”, he
said, “ambergris,” and proceeded to scoop it up in his
arms, so after a while I helped him. Now I know why.

Recently, an Australian couple who picked up a 14.75 kg lump of
ambergris from a quiet South Australian beach are going to get
richer as ambergris is worth up to $20 a gram. Initially,
ambergris is a soft, foul-smelling waste matter that floats on
the ocean. It is expelled from the tummy of the giant sperm whale
as a digestion aid, to get rid of things like the beaks of squid
that they cannot digest. After 10 years, it's considered
clean and it turns into a musky sweet perfume which is why it is
worth a lot of money to perfume manufacturers.