【高级听力】（文末附视频）Why Whale Poop 鲸鱼粪 Is So Expensive

Why Whale Poop Is So Expensive

《文 末 附 视 频》

This may not be a word-for-word transcript.

Narrator: This is ambergris. It might look like a rock, but it’s actually a rare kind of whale poop. And it’s not cheap. Per gram, ambergris can cost more than silver – 30 times more. If you’ve ever worn perfume, well, I’ve got some unsettling news, you may have misted yourself with animal waste. You see, for centuries, perfumers have been using ambergris to enhance their fragrances. It’s essentially a clump of squid beaks bound by a fatty secretion. Over time, it balls up in the intestine of some sperm whales and eventually, out it goes. Now, in the strictest sense, it’s not technically poop, but scientists think it exits the same way, if you catch my drift.

Christopher Kemp: One way or another, a big boulder of ambergris is released into the ocean and then floats for decades, you know, who knows how long.  

Narrator: And in that time, the mass transforms from a sticky, dung-like substance into a hard, gray chunk. And this, believe it or not, is what perfumers covet. For one, it contains a unique chemical that works as a fixative, which means it makes other smells in perfume last longer. But ambergris is also valued for something incredibly surprising: apparently, it smells good?  

Christopher Kemp: It’s like a bouquet of 20 or 30 different chemical compounds, each have their own odor profile. One will smell sort of like mushrooms, one will smell a little bit like tobacco, one smells like poop, one smells sort of like…like grass and hay.

Narrator: Sounds great. Well, apparently, perfume designers use strong scents like those as the base note for their fragrances. And base notes form the foundation of any perfume. One company in particular has several expensive perfumes with base notes of ambergris. Perfumes in this collection can sell for around $500 a bottle and are described as a passionate love letter in fragrant form. 

And while ambergris has all the makings for a great perfume, what really drives up the price tag is simply how rare it is. Scientists don’t know exactly why, but only about 1% of sperm whales produce this substance. In fact, researchers like Dr. Shane Gero, who spend years studying sperm whales, never end up seeing it.

Dr. Shane Gero: I’ve been collecting sperm whale poop for 15, 16 years, and I haven’t ever collected anything that I was like, aw, maybe this is, you know, a tiny little ambergris ball.

Narrator: Sometimes, lucky beachgoers will stumble upon it. In 2006, for example, a couple picked up a 32-pound piece on a beach in Australia. Media outlets later reported that it could be worth nearly $300,000. But more often, ambergris hunters will get to it first. They track weather patterns and ocean currents to predict where it might end up. And once they find it, they sell it to brokers or perfumers for up to $7,200 a pound.

Christopher Kemp: This is like gold to them, this is a real commodity. So they take it very seriously. They can be a bit aggressive, muscular and…and they really closely guard their secrets.

Narrator: But the commodity’s high price isn’t the only reason they do it. In some countries like the U.S., buying, selling, or even collecting ambergris is illegal. That’s because sperm whales are an internationally threatened species.

Dr. Shane Gero: Before whaling starting actively, both historical and modern whaling, there was over a million sperm whales. And now we’re down close to a fifth of that.

Narrator: And while no whales are harmed in the collection of ambergris, Gero says that it’s never a good idea to buy or sell products from an endangered species. But until we can replicate something that smells as good as that, mmm, whale poop, people will probably keep buying and selling ambergris.

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