Councilmen From Japanese Whaling Town Break Code of Silence

[Guest guest]

Environment News Service - USA

 

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2007/2007-08-30-04.asp

 

Councilmen From Japanese Whaling Town Break Code of Silence

 

TAIJI, Japan, August 30, 2007 (ENS) - Two town council members from

the whaling town of Taiji have come out publicly against the feeding

of dolphin meat contaminated with mercury to children in Japan's

school lunch programs. It is the first time that Japanese elected

officials have broken the unwritten rule against criticizing whaling

and the consumption of whale meat that prevails across the country.

 

Independents Junichiro Yamashita and Hisato Ryono will be holding a

news conference on Monday to announce laboratory test results of

samples taken from dolphin meat purchased at local supermarkets. The

meat was found to contain over 10 times the government's limit for

both mercury and methyl mercury.

 

The news conference comes as the annual dolphin drive hunt begins in

Taiji. Conservationists around the world oppose the hunt, the largest

kill of dolphins anywhere in the world, which takes place over six

months beginning in September.

 

Yamashita said, " 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 the drive fisheries was fed to kids in

school lunches. "

 

The assemblymen described the dolphin meat as " toxic waste " and are

attempting to persuade other elected officials in Taiji and

surrounding towns to take it off school lunch menus.

 

Although the supermarkets immediately removed dolphin meat from their

shelves after they were informed of the test results, the town of

Taiji is moving ahead with plans to build a new dolphin processing

facility while expanding the dolphin meat lunch programs to

surrounding school districts, says Ric O'Barry of the advocacy group

Save Japan Dolphins.

 

A former trainer of dolphin TV star Flipper, O'Barry is an American

who travels to Taiji to oppose the annual dolphin hunt.

 

O'Barry is attempting to draw the attention of the Japanese media to

the efforts of Yamashita and Ryono to stop the feeding of mercury-

laced dolphin meat to children at school, but he says " the complete

stonewalling by Japanese government agencies and the media on the

issue now prompts Yamashita to bring his case to the attention of the

foreign press. "

 

A notice of Yamashita's news conference is listed on the website of

the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

 

One Japanese newspaper has published an article about Yamashita and

Ryono's lab tests. On August 1, the " Japan Times " ran an article

quoting Yamashita as saying the two council members at first did not

believe the reports of contaminated meat, which came from western

conservation organizations.

 

" We tested some samples purchased at the Gyoko supermarket in Taiji

and Super Center Okuwa in the nearby city of Shingu, " Yamashita said.

The councilmen 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, " the article states.

 

" Another dolphin sample tested 15.97 times and 12 times above

advisory levels of total mercury and methylmercury, respectively. "

 

The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of mercury.

Methylmercury and metallic mercury vapors are more harmful than other

forms, because more mercury in these forms reaches the brain.

 

Exposure to high levels of metallic, inorganic, or organic mercury

can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetus.

Children poisoned by mercury may develop problems of their nervous

and digestive systems, and kidney damage. Effects on brain

functioning may result in irritability, shyness, tremors, changes in

vision or hearing, and memory problems.

 

Mercury poisoning received worldwide attention during the 1950s when

hundreds died and thousands more were injured in the city of

Minamata, Japan after a corporation polluted the waters of Minamata

Bay with mercury compounds. Local residents who ate fish from the bay

were poisoned.

 

Many governments now issue health bulletins advising pregnant women

and children to avoid eating fish known to contain high levels of

mercury.

 

At Taiji, dolphins are hunted for meat and also captured live for

sale to marine parks and aquariums, fetching much higher prices for

the Taiji fishers than dolphins killed for meat.

 

The activists are moved by the cries of the dolphin mothers with

newborn calves " who call out in distress as they are separated in the

most brutal ways imaginable, " said a coalition of In Defense of

Animals, the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island

Institute and One Voice - France in a joint statement during the 2005

hunt.

 

" They are driven onto Japanese beaches and bays, stabbed with spears

and knives, then left to slowly bleed to death literally turning the

sea red while others drown entangled in nets. Some of the dolphins

are taken alive, pulled out of the water by ropes tied around their

tails to be sold to marine parks, " the groups said in a joint

statement.

 

The Fisheries Agency of Japan is going to add Pacific white-sided

dolphins to the catch quota of the Taiji drive fishery for the 2007

hunting season, saying that there has been " a strong request from

fishers in recent years to allow their capture. "

 

The Elsa Nature Conservancy, a Japanese organization, strongly

objects to this broadening of the hunt, and contends that the request

to capture Pacific white-sided dolphins comes not from fishers but

from aquariums.

 

In a November 27, 2006 letter of protest to the Fishery Agency,

Conservancy president Eiji Fujiwara writes, " An internal

communication sent by the Japan Cetacean Conference on Zoological

Gardens and Aquariums on August 16, 2006 to the directors of zoos and

aquariums which are members of the Cetacean Conference notes that

Pacific white-sided dolphins are hard to obtain, and that not all

aquarium directors who desire to obtain them have done so. "

 

Fujiwara objects that the Taiji Whale Museum buys the live dolphins

and turns around and " sells them to China and other countries for

prices about seven times the initial purchase price under the pretext

of 'scientific purposes.'

 

This is none other than " dolphin flipping, " writes Fujiwara, pointing

out that " there is even strong opposition to it from among local

citizens and town council members. "

 

" It is anticipated that if the capture of Pacific white-sided

dolphins is permitted, it will further increase this " dolphin

flipping " under the pretext of " scientific exchanges, " he writes.

 

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