Japanese Media ignoring mercury-tainted dolphin meat: assemblyman

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Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007

 

 

Media ignoring mercury-tainted dolphin meat: assemblyman

 

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20070904a3.html

 

 

By JUN HONGO

Staff writer

The Japanese media's lack of condemnation is the principal reason

mercury-tainted dolphin meat continues to be consumed, including in school

lunches, a local assembly member from Wakayama Prefecture said Monday.

 

 

Dolphins crash into each other as they are herded into a capture cove in

Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, while Taiji assembly member Junichiro Yamashita

speaks Monday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo about the

mercury contained in dolphin meat served in local school lunches. BOYD HARNELL /

JUN HONGO PHOTOS

 

 

 

Junichiro Yamashita of the Taiji Municipal Assembly criticized the nation's

media for their reluctance to report the hazards of dolphin meat, even though

samples from local supermarkets have contained mercury levels 10 times above the

health ministry's advisory limit.

 

" The media have concerns because such information can impact the fishing

industry in Taiji, " Yamashita told a news conference at the Foreign

Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. " But it is problematic that local

residents, including parents of schoolchildren, remain unaware of the issue. "

 

The Japan Times has been continuously covering the issue, and its Aug. 1

revelation of the mercury risk in school lunches became part of the reason for

Yamashita's news conference Monday.

 

Approximately 2,300 out of an estimated 20,000 dolphins hunted annually in Japan

are slaughtered at the fishing town of Taiji, located on the Kii Peninsula,

Yamashita said.

 

While some are sent to overseas aquariums, others are butchered and the meat is

sold in local supermarkets in packages of approximately ¥170 per 100 grams.

Dolphin is available in supermarkets in Taiji, Yamashita said, adding that some

150 kg was served last year in school lunches in the area.

 

Although not customary to most Japanese, the tradition of consuming whales and

dolphins, typically in a miso-flavored stew, has continued for more than 400

years. But the independent politician said he was " shocked " when a meat sample

taken from a local supermarket in June revealed high levels of mercury and

methylmercury.

 

The test results showed dolphin meat possessed mercury 10 times above the health

ministry's advisory level of 0.4 parts per million, while the level of

methylmercury was 10.33 times higher than the ministry's advisory level of 0.3

ppm, Yamashita said.

 

While no health impact has been reported, the numbers exceeded some of the

examinations conducted on seafood that caused the Minamata mercury-pollution

disaster in the 1950s, Yamashita said.

 

Despite the results, he said he has been unsuccessful in persuading Taiji to

restrain sales of the meat or get local residents to stop consuming it.

 

The town has chosen to expand dolphin use in school lunches while proposing to

construct a new dolphin and whale slaughterhouse, for some ¥330 million, to

" popularize the consumption of dolphins in the country, " Yamashita revealed. " It

is a serious concern that such meat is being served in school lunches. "

 

He acknowledged that sounding the alarm could threaten the economy of the small

fishing town known as the birthplace of Japan's whaling industry, and some of

his assembly colleagues have cold-shouldered him since he revealed the toxic

levels. Many fishermen have also been acting differently, he added.

 

But despite the resistance, the media must lead the way and blow the whistle to

prevent a mercury pollution disaster, Yamashita said.

 

" The health ministry may not be taking this problem seriously now, but once the

information spreads, the country will have to face the issue, " he said.

 

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