The simple answer is yes; whales can and do vomit.
When food or bacteria gets lodged in the whale’s throat and digestive system, it irritates its digestive tract.
It causes it to vomit the trapped food/bacteria out of its mouth to clear its throat for other foods and prevent the whale from losing its ability to swallow/digest its food properly.
Vomiting itself is a common characteristic of land and marine mammals.
Sometimes an animal vomits to remove toxic bacteria or chemicals from the body that the digestive system or lungs cannot handle.
In other situations, vomiting clears the digestive tract to keep it healthy and remove non-digestible objects.
This trait is also seen in whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
For the sperm whale, whale vomit is a precious material used to make several top-end perfumes, cologne, and cosmetics for many years.
Because of this popularity and the fact that tracking whales could lead to endangering the species, the sale of whale vomit has become illegal in some parts of the world.
Turning a whale’s vomit into perfume takes time and preparation for those who sell it or make ingredients with it.
After a whale vomits, its vomit is left to petrify and age until it is considered valuable enough to be used in cosmetics; it is then broken down and added as an ingredient in perfumes and cologne sold to the public.
In the past, whale vomit was also used as incense and an ingredient in cigarettes.
Nowadays, synthetic solutions have primarily replaced the use of whale vomit.
Tying to sell whale vomit has been an intricate problem many individuals and businesses have faced, as it is considered illegal to sell it in many locations.
This is because whales are a protected species.
As a result, the laws keep whales from being followed by scavengers, potentially risking the whale’s life or safety.
Surprisingly whale vomit can be pretty expensive to purchase when it is being sold and has even been called “floating gold” due to the excessive amount of money people are willing to pay for it.
This waxy, solid, and flammable substance is scientifically referred to as Ambergris and is produced in the digestive system of a sperm whale and is eventually regurgitated or vomited out.
Ambergris can also be expelled out of the whale’s anal tract.
When it is first released from the whale’s body, the smell is often comparable to fecal matter; however, the odor begins to take on a sweet earthy scent as it ages.
Whale vomit can sometimes be found floating around (mainly in the Atlantic Ocean and a few other locations where sperm whales are particularly abundant) or washed to shore lying on the beach.