Good question. I know that they were collecting Ambergris as far back as the 18th century. No one, IIRC, has ever seen a whale puke. They believe that ambergris comes from whales because they find other things like small bones, krill and crab shells mixed in with it. Ambergris became too expensive for making amber style perfumes so synthetics have been created as a replacement.
What in the world is IIRC again???