A UK Couple Found Whale Vomit on a Beach — and It's Worth $50,000

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A British couple were taking a romantic stroll along a beach one day that reeked of rotting fish when they stumbled upon a grey blob that turned out to be whale vomit. Naturally, they wrapped it up and took it home. The couple is now about to be potentially $50,000 richer.

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The Guardian reported that Gary and Angela Williams of Lancashire is currently in negotiations with buyers in France and New Zealand to sell the 3.46 pound lump of whale vomit — a valuable commodity to perfumers due to a waxy substance called ambergris used to preserve the scent of perfumes.

Ambergris is the product secreted from the sperm whale's bile duct and intestines, and is thought to be a digestive lube for any sharp or rigid objects the whale might have consumed.

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Speaking to the Mirror, the couple described the whale vomit's smell as "bad," and a distinctive "cross between squid and farmyard manure." Though its initial smell is wretched, ambergris begins to take on a "sweet, earthy aroma" as it ages, not unlike pine or tobacco.

Can we now figure out a way to monetize human vomit?

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