(JP) Taiji officials: Dolphin meat 'toxic waste'

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Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007

 

Taiji officials: Dolphin meat 'toxic waste'

Assembly pair break taboo, warn of acute mercury risk

in school lunches

 

By BOYD HARNELL

Special to The Japan Times

 

For what is believed to be the first time anywhere in

Japan, elected officials have openly condemned the

consumption of dolphin meat, especially in school

lunches, on grounds that it is dangerously

contaminated with mercury.

 

In an exclusive interview with The Japan Times held in

Kii Katsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, on July 19,

Assemblymen Junichiro Yamashita, 59, and Hisato Ryono,

51, from the nearby whaling city of Taiji said they

had found extremely high mercury and methylmercury

levels in samples of meat from pilot whales killed

inshore by Taiji hunters and put on sale in that

locality.

 

The pilot whale, or " gondo " (Globicephala

macrorhynchus), is the largest of the dolphin family

of small cetaceans. This species is among some 2,300

dolphins slaughtered annually in Taiji, after the

mammals are herded in " drive fisheries " into small

coves, where they are speared and hacked to death.

Similar hunts elsewhere in Japan are estimated to

account for at least another 20,000 small cetaceans

annually.

 

The Taiji assemblymen, who are both independents, also

condemned the growing practice of feeding this meat to

children in their school lunches — describing it as no

less than " toxic waste. "

 

The random samples tested by the two assemblymen were

bought at supermarkets in Taiji and nearby Shingu, and

were similarly sourced to the meat served to children

in whale-meat lunches at Taiji schools. Such lunches

may also have been served in schools in other

prefectures, the Taiji officials said.

 

Yamashita and Ryono defied the code of silence

traditionally shrouding sensitive issues, especially

one that could threaten the economy of their small,

isolated fishing town on the scenic Kii Peninsula.

 

Asked why, they said local people were getting very

anxious about food safety in Japan. Recent reports of

contaminated products from China have heightened their

concerns, they said.

 

Yamashita explained, " We're not against traditional

whaling, but we heard claims that pilot whales are

poisoned with mercury, and we discovered that some of

this meat from a (drive fishery) was fed to kids in

school lunches. "

 

He said that although they had doubted the pilot

whales were contaminated with mercury, they decided to

have certified lab tests carried out nonetheless.

 

" We tested some samples — purchased at the Gyokyo

supermarket in Taiji and Super Center Okuwa in the

nearby city of Shingu, " Yamashita said, adding they

were " shocked " by the results.

 

One dolphin sample had a mercury content 10 times

above the health ministry's advisory level of 0.4

parts per million, with a methylmercury readout 10.33

times over the ministry's own advisory level of 0.3

ppm.

 

Another dolphin sample tested 15.97 times and 12 times

above advisory levels of total mercury and

methylmercury, respectively.

 

The results prompted the two officials to describe

dolphin meat as " toxic waste. "

 

In fact, the dolphin levels were higher than some of

the mercury-tainted seafood tested during the tragic

Minamata mercury-pollution disaster of the 1950s,

according to Dr. Shigeo Ekino of Kumamoto Medical

Science University in Kyushu. In that episode,

thousands were sickened, disabled or died in the toxic

chemical disaster.

 

Ekino is famous for his breakthrough study of brain

specimens from deceased Minamata disease victims that

reveals how even low levels of methylmercury can

damage or destroy neurons.

 

After they received the test results, the Taiji

lawmakers, anxious about the possible toxic effects of

pilot-whale meat consumed by local schoolchildren,

quickly contacted Masahiko Tamaki, an official of the

Wakayama pre-fectural health section, and showed him

the test results from their samples.

 

Yamashita said, " He (Tamaki) seems to think he has to

do something, but doesn't know how to do it. "

 

Tamaki was hesitant to confront the mercury issue due

to possible repercussions, and offered no solutions,

Yamashita said, adding, " The Wakayama health section

simply told me they didn't want to upset Taiji

people. "

 

But Yamashita said: " According to the high mercury

result, if they continue, the people will be harmed —

this harm, spread through school lunches, is terrible

because children will be forced to eat mercury-tainted

dolphin. "

 

Despite the Taiji pair's urgent health concerns,

however, Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen plans to build a

new slaughterhouse for processing meat from pilot

whales and other dolphins caught during globally

condemned drive fisheries there.

 

He also wants to expand the provision of school

lunches containing pilot whale meat.

 

Ryono said, " We may not be able to prevent the

building of a new slaughterhouse, but we will continue

to appeal to Taiji people not to use dolphin for

school lunches. "

 

Meanwhile, concern over 12 dolphins currently in

" capture pens " in Taiji is mounting as the mammals

await imminent shipment to a dolphin aquarium in the

Dominican Republic. This has prompted Yamashita and

Ryono to write an urgent letter to Max Puig,

environmental minister of the Dominican Republic,

protesting importation of the dolphins, saying his

environmentally friendly island state would be

accepting " toxic waste. "

 

Top researchers in Japan's medical community have also

voiced concern about the high levels of mercury found

in small-cetacean food products.

 

Ekino told The Japan Times: " Everyone should avoid

eating dolphin meat. If people continue to eat

dolphin, there's a high probability of them having

damage to their brains. . . . No government agency is

studying the problem — no scientists in Japan want to

study the subject; it's very political. "

 

Award-winning U.S. neurologist David Perlmutter echoed

Ekino's sentiments in a telephone interview, saying,

" I totally agree with Dr. Ekino when he said everyone

should avoid eating dolphin meat — the consumption of

dolphin meat is a profound health risk for humans. "

 

Referring to Japan's health advisories warning

pregnant women that consuming dolphin meat " can be

harmful to the fetus and to young children, "

Perlmutter, who has a private practice at his clinic

in Naples, Fla., said, " If it's a risk for pregnant

women and children, why is it safe for anyone else? "

 

Tetsuya Endo, a professor and researcher at Hokkaido

Health Science University's faculty of pharmaceutical

sciences, affirmed the other doctors' condemnation of

small-cetacean food products.

 

In a terse e-mail sent to this correspondent, Endo

said, in reference to dolphin meat, " It's not food! "

 

In 2005, Endo published the results of a three-year

study on random samples of cetacean food products sold

throughout Japan, and concluded all of it was

unhealthy because of high levels of mercury and

methylmercury.

 

However, Hideki Moronuki, deputy director of the

government's Far Seas Fisheries Division of the

Resources Management Department, in an interview with

The Japan Times, maligned Endo's study, calling it

" misleading information. " When pressed, though, he

failed to substantiate his accusation.

 

Endo, however, responded to The Japan Times in an

e-mail, saying, " If he (Moronuki) has any basis for

his comments, he has the responsibility to show it

because it is deeply related to human health. "

 

Moronuki was specifically asked if there was a mercury

problem with dolphins. His response: " No. "

 

He acknowledged that doctors' reports (of high mercury

levels) may be correct, but claimed, " I don't think it

causes a problem with consumers. "

 

When asked if he thought consuming dolphin meat was

dangerous, he said, " No. "

 

But he conceded that eating too much dolphin meat

could be " dangerous. "

 

Moronuki was also asked if he felt responsible for the

poisoning of his own people. He replied: " No. I am

responsible for the management of the dolphin fishery,

that's it. "

 

This bureaucrat's attitude flies in the face of

certified copies of six test reports commissioned and

paid for over the past year, each showing high mercury

levels in the meat put on sale from all dolphin

species tested. That data have been made freely

available by The Japan Times to the appropriate

Japanese government agencies and officials.

 

Despite this hard data, government authorities have

consistently displayed a sense of apathy toward these

matters, and what many informed commentators regard as

dangerously cavalier attitudes in dealing with urgent

health issues affecting their citizens.

 

Makoto Tanaka, assistant director of the health

ministry's inspection and safety division in the Food

Safety Department, would only say that he is seeking

an international standard for establishing a new

advisory level for consumers of mercury-tainted food

products.

 

The health ministry has been aware of the mercury

problem in small cetaceans (not to mention in the meat

from great whales) for many years, but so far it has

refused to ban the sale of such food products.

 

In particular — despite unequivocal scientific test

results — it has failed to require the posting of

warning labels for consumers of dolphin meat.

 

This approach continues despite an advisory order, Kan

Nyu Dai 99 Ban, established July 23, 1973, under which

a warning was issued to prefectural and local

governments by the then director of the environmental

and health agency, stating that mercury in seafood

must not exceed the advisory level of 0.4 ppm.

 

Although still in effect, enforcement of the advisory

order by governors and mayors has been lax and

unchallenged.

 

But the reaction around the killing coves of Taiji was

swift in confronting the two assemblymen's health

concerns.

 

On the one hand, Gyokyo, the leading local

supermarket, pulled pilot whale meat off its shelves,

and will not resume its sale, according to Takuya

Kondo, assistant director of the health ministry's

Department of Food Safety's Standards and Evaluation

Division.

 

Kondo said, " The (Taiji) government has to comply with

.. . . provisional regulations. . . . They are not

supposed to sell (dolphin meat) if it is over the

advisory level of 0.4 ppm for mercury. "

 

Yamashita and Ryono believe many people in Japan are

unaware of the (health) problems related to consuming

dolphin meat, and they say they want to educate people

through an Internet blog currently posted by the Save

Japan Dolphins coalition, an international

conservation group.

 

But it would be a lot more straightforward if this

issue was addressed in a more open and accountable way

by officials.

 

Instead, a pervasive sense of paranoia seems to loom

over any investigation of the mercury contamination of

foodstuff in Japan.

 

On this reporter's initial visit to the test lab, my

sample of dolphin meat was at first rejected for

testing by lab officials, who greeted me with a file

of my articles on the barbaric dolphin slaughter in

Taiji, and the toxicity of cetacean meat sold in

Japan.

 

One lab official said: " Sometimes happens big problem,

I must confirm your purpose. . . . We cannot stand in

opposite position of Fishery Agency. . . . If you

publish our report, we'll have to close the lab. "

 

The lab later conducted the test after learning the

test-sample result would determine whether a

potentially dangerous public-health hazard existed.

 

Also, during the dolphin drives and the animals'

subsequent slaughter in Taiji, I was stalked nonstop

by shady-looking characters just a few meters behind

me wherever I went. Police also attempted to question

me several times and, to my considerable

consternation, all seemed to know my name exactly as

written on my driver's license — even though only my

hotel had a copy of my license.

 

It was very unsettling.

 

Perhaps the two courageous assemblymen may have

sounded the final death knell to Japan's dolphin

slaughter by focusing the spotlight on the toxic

products of this butchery.

 

But how many Japanese may already be adversely

affected, so many years after the danger of this cruel

trade has been known?

 

The Japan Times

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