TAIJI, Japan (23 Oct 2008)

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Japan's whaling town residents have dangerously high levels of mercury

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by JUSTIN McCURRY

TAIJI, Japan (23 Oct 2008) — Japanese diners who enjoy tucking into

dolphin meat are putting their health at risk, as well as courting international

condemnation.

 

A new study by two Japanese universities found that residents of Taiji, a

whaling town on the Pacific coast, who frequently ate the meat of pilot whale -

a member of the dolphin family - have mercury levels 10 times the national

average.

 

The hair of three tested residents contained quantities of mercury higher

than 50 parts per million [ppm], a level that can lead to neurological problems.

 

Researchers from the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido and Daiichi

University's College of Pharmaceutical Studies tested hair samples from 30 men

and 20 women from the town between last December and July this year.

 

The average mercury level among the men was 21.6 ppm and 11.9 ppm among

women - both about 10 times the national average. Three men with dangerously

high levels of mercury said they ate pilot whale meat more than once a month.

 

Tetsuya Endo, a member of the research team, said the residents faced no

immediate threats to their health but suggested they cut back on their dolphin

and whale meat consumption, according to the Kyodo news agency.

 

Mercury levels halved among people who stopped eating the meat for two

months.

 

Last year a study of dolphin meat served in school lunches in the Taiji

area revealed mercury levels 10 to 16 times higher than the health ministry's

accepted level of 0.4 ppm.

 

 

New scientific studies by two Japanese universities confirm that the small

minority of Japanese who eat marine mammals are putting their health at risk.

 

The latest warnings come as the town, about 280 miles west of Tokyo,

begins its annual dolphin cull.

 

Local fishermen are expected to slaughter around 2,000 of the estimated

20,000 dolphins that will be killed in Japanese coastal waters between now and

April.

 

The hunters bang on metal poles to drive pods of dolphins into secluded

coves, where they are speared and hacked to death. The few that survive are sold

to aquariums in Japan, Europe and the US.

 

Despite international condemnation of the culls, the people of Taiji,

where coastal whaling is said to stretch back 400 years, claim the local economy

would collapse if coastal whaling and dolphin hunting were banned.

 

 

 

SCU