Discoveries
One Man's Rancid Whale Carcass Is Another's Cash Cow

By Bill Donahue

Craig Smith can scarcely contain his excitement. "We hope to sink a whale carcass off the coast of southern California," the University of Hawaii oceanographer says of the expedition he's planned for this month. "We'll be smeared with rotting blubber, and then we'll try to wash our wetsuits."

Gosh, Professor Smith, how remarkably ... um, revolting. Not that the nobility of an enterprise should be judged by its tidiness. And indeed, what may sound like a twisted experiment designed to give nightmares to the folks who fashion laundry detergent is, in fact, quite the opposite. Smith has heroically immersed himself in the little-known field of scuttling putrid leviathans because he believes they hold the key to an elixir that has eluded soap makers for centuries: an enzyme that can dissolve greasy stains in cold water.

When the dead cetaceans hit the seabed, Smith explains, worms, crabs, and fish spend about six months dining on the flesh. After they have finished their meal, legions of bacteria then belly up to the table and begin secreting mysterious enzymes that dissolve the fat-rich bones with Mr. Clean-like aplomb. Smith, 43, has already harvested millions of these adipose-scarfing microbes on the ice-cold ocean floor. Now he plans to refine his inquiry by posing the fascinating question: At what point in the decomposition of a dead whale are lard-loving bacteria most effective?

The question is crucial because Diversa, a San Diego-based biotechnology firm with which Smith collaborates, is attempting to create a synthetic version of those elusive butter-busting enzymes. Diversa has also opened negotiations with Procter & Gamble, the makers of Tide. If everything goes as planned, consumers could be "whale-washing" by 2000 — a prospect that evokes in Jeff Stein, Diversa's chief scientist, visions of a wild unleashing of "scrubbing power." As for Smith, the Rousseau of this laundry revolution, he just wants to get the stench out of his wetsuits. "Right now it's very difficult," he says. "One guy even threw his suit out. But I guess if we had a better detergent ... "