Kerre Woodham: Whale vomit brings smell of money for Aussie beachcombers

As you're walking along the beach, making the most of your long weekend, keep your eyes on the sand, not the sea, and you could be thousands, maybe even millions, of dollars richer.
An Australian family taking a stroll on one of their west coast beaches has won the equivalent of beachcombers' Lotto with their discovery of a huge chunk of whale vomit. Who'd have thought that a big lump of solidified chuck could have been the pivot upon which a family's fortunes would turn? But it's true.

Whale vomit is otherwise known as ambergris. It's a highly-prized commodity and has been since hundreds of years before Christ. It was used in the manufacture of perfumes and still is in the flasher ones. Hence its going rate of $30-$90 a gram.

It's the result of sperm whales expelling the food they can't digest, mainly squid beaks.

Apparently the sound a whale makes when it hurls can be heard for miles and is something quite spectacular.

I reckon any Eastern Suburbs under-21 player after a big night out could give a sperm whale a run for its money but I bow to the superior knowledge of the marine biologists.

Whale puke is lighter than water and floats around the ocean. The sun and sea gradually clean it, leaving a sweet-smelling substance that may eventually float on to a beach near you. Plenty of New Zealanders know all about ambergris and supplement their incomes nicely, thanks to the contents of whale stomachs.

Some enterprising beachcombers have even trained their dogs to sniff it out. There's a website you can visit that will explain what ambergris looks like, where you can find it and how to sell it - go to www.ambergris.co.nz and it's got all the details.

But be warned - as the website explains, ambergris looks a lot like dried dog poo, so make sure you've got the right mammal and the right excreta from the right end. Happy hunting.