Whale meat as dog food

[Guest guest]

Giant of the sea used as petfood

Times Online

By Leo Lewis in Tokyo and Mark Henderson, Science

Correspondent

February 10, 2006

 

Japanese lose the taste for whale meat so they're

feeding it to dogs

 

JAPAN’S whaling fleet has survived international

condemnation and hot pursuits by Greenpeace activists.

But it may finally be sunk because the nation’s

passion for whale meat has dimmed.

When the whaling ships return from the Southern Ocean

this spring, they hope to bring in a haul of almost

1,000 minke whales — 40 per cent more than last year.

But this year their controversial catch, which the

whalers claim is a by-product of scientific research,

will not be eagerly received.

 

The commercial freezers of the whale meat industry are

already stuffed with 2,700 tonnes of uneaten stock,

and the public appetite for the flesh is dwindling so

fast that much of it will end up as pet food or in

school dinners.

 

The Japanese Government’s response has been to begin

an extraordinary drive to promote the gastronomic

delights of the “scrumptious whale”.

 

One website selling whale meat for pets shows a

picture of a dog with the slogans: “I’m Charlie. I

love whale meat!” and “Pets love whale meat too.”

 

Whale burgers and whale spaghetti bolognese are

appearing on school menus and the meat is being

distributed to old people’s homes.

 

The promotional campaign has been seized on by

environmentalists and anti-whaling groups, who say it

gives the lie to Japan’s argument that it kills whales

for scientific, not cultural or commercial, reasons.

 

“Japan’s real whaling agenda has never been about

science, but is primarily economic,” said Mark

Simmonds, scientific director of the Whale and Dolphin

Conservation Society.

 

“By taking this into schools, they are trying to get

children interested in eating whale meat so they

continue to want it as they grow up, and create a new

and enduring marketplace.

 

“WDCS hopes that this campaign, and the overt use of

whales for dog food, will expose its scientific

whaling programme as a politically motivated sham.”

 

Sue Lieberman, director of the global species

programme for WWF-International, said: “This proves

whaling is not about science at all. By promoting

whale meat to schoolchildren they are seeking to

create a new constituency that will support whaling in

the future.”

 

Whale meat was a cheap source of protein that saved

Japan from malnutrition after the Second World War,

but tastes have changed and demand has slumped.

Indeed, most older Japanese dislike whale meat

precisely because of its association with cheap,

hard-to-chew school dinners.

 

As a result, the country’s whale meat inventories are

more than twice the size they were in 1999 and prices

have tumbled by nearly a third. Once considered a rare

delicacy, a kilo of whale steak can be bought at the

Tsukiji fish market, in Tokyo, for about 2,500 yen

(£12) — less than a similarly sized slab of Australian

beef. This has led the Japan Whaling Association to

publish a pamphlet, Scrumptious Whale, promoting whale

meat as a food, and cookery magazines have been

persuaded to talk up whale meat recipes long rejected

in normal Japanese homes.

 

Children aged between 5 and 11 are given “whale

culture” lectures in which they are told about rising

whale populations and then encouraged to tuck into

deep-fried whale cubes.

 

Japan has justified its whaling on the basis of

scientific research, which is permitted by a loophole

in International Whaling Commission regulations.

 

Most scientists, however, contend that, although

useful information about whale diets and their place

in food chains can be learnt from whaling operations,

it is neither necessary nor ethically justifiable to

kill them in pursuit of science.

 

Insiders at the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture

say that the country is reluctant to give ground on

the whaling issue for fear that its tuna fishing

industry will be forced to make similar concessions.

 

HISTORY

 

1864 modern whaling developed in Norway

1940 US stops whaling

1946 International Convention for the Regulation of

Whaling is signed; Japan resumes whaling in Antarctic

1948 International Whaling Commission established

1963 Hunting of humpback whales in Antarctic Ocean is

banned; Britain stops whaling

1972 Japan starts minke whaling

1982 IWC enacts a ban on commercial whaling

1993 Norway resumes commercial whaling

2003 Iceland announces it will resume whaling

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2033786,00.html

--------------------

Main Whaling Nations

 

NORWAY - Resumed commercial hunts of minke whales in

1993, ignoring the IWC moratorium. Norway's whalers

have a quota of just under 800 of the cetaceans for

2005. The meat is eaten as steaks.

 

Oslo further angered whaling opponents by resuming

whale exports in 2002 to Iceland and the Faroe

Islands, in defiance of a separate global trade ban.

But planned blubber exports to Japan have been stalled

by high levels of poisonous PCB chemicals in the whale

fat.

 

JAPAN - Carries out whaling for scientific research,

which Tokyo says is allowed by IWC rules even though

opponents call it a cover for commercial hunts. Japan

caught 440 minke whales in the Antarctic in its annual

whaling season. It hunts smaller numbers of minkes,

Brydes and sperm whales in the northwest Pacific. The

meat ends up in restaurants and sushi bars.

 

ICELAND - Resumed whaling in 2003 when it caught 36

minke whales for scientific research. It cut the quota

to 25 in 2004 and has not yet set a quota for 2005.

 

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31348/newsDate/22-Jun-2005/st\

ory.htm

----------------

End Whaling Petition:

 

This petition takes only moments to sign.

 

The petition will be sent to Greenpeace, the

International Whaling Commission and the Australian

Federal Government.

 

87758 people from 187 countries have signed, the goal

is 1,000,000.

 

Petition's statement-

 

We the undersigned wish to show our support for an end

to commercial whaling.

We believe that the slaughter of whales for so-called

'scientific reasons' is wrong.

We wish to add our voices to the global campaign to

protect these precious mammals from extinction.

 

http://www.whalesrevenge.com/

 

 

 

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