News of Toxicity in Whale and Dolphin Meat.
In the artcle entitled "EATING HIGHLY CONTAMINATED, ILLICIT DOLPHIN MEAT, BIOLOGIST AND HARVARD RESEARCHER SAYS ILLEGALLY TAKEN ANIMALS, MARKETED AS WHALE, CONTAIN DANGEROUS LEVELS OF TOXINS. OFFICIALS IN JAPAN DOWNPLAY FINDINGS" the Los Angeles Times described (October 30, 1999) that a major new health issue has emerged in Japan due to joint Japanese and Harvard research which has discovered that:
"Consumers in Japan are unknowingly eating dolphin and porpoise-- marketed as whale meat--that contain dangerously high levels of mercury and other contaminants."
Dr. Palumbi, a Harvard University biologist who assisted in the research, wrote a letter to Japanese officials requesting public health warnings and an immediate ban on sales of contaminated meat. The LA Times quotes Palumbi,
"We believe that Japanese consumers are receiving inadequate and, in some cases, inaccurate information about the cetacean products they purchase. As a result, such consumers are unwittingly consuming highly contaminated and potentially dangerous cetacean products."
The LA Time quotes a spokesman from Japan's Far Sea Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who would not disclose his name as saying "As far as we know, whale meat products on the Japanese market do not contain high levels of contaminants."
TAG believes that official ignorance about toxic contamination of whale meat is insufficient reason for the government not to ban sale of poisonous foodstuffs. They should at least conduct tests themselves before allowing sale of any dubious sea food.
Japanese volunteers bought 130 samples of meat sold as whale and dolphin, at fish markets, stores and restaurants in six cities across Japan in early 1999. Harvard DNA testing research found about 25% was misadvertised, some of the meat is from illegally caught Blue, Humpback and Sperm whales. According to the LA Times, Palumbi said
"Japanese consumers who eat the mislabeled dolphin or porpoise face a 70% chance of ingesting at least one pollutant at a level considered unsafe for human consumption, . One sample of dolphin meat labeled as whale contained 500 times more mercury than Japan's health advisory limit."
The LA Times quotes Theo Colborn, a World Wildlife Fund specialist in contaminants as saying
"Those concentrations are much too high and certainly no pregnant woman or children should be eating this stuff. It's an important message for the government to get out."
TAG believes that no whale and dolphin products should be eaten without guarantees of its safety from the Health and Welfare Ministry. Food labels should be accurate and should state that the meat comes from an animal tested and found free of toxic contaminants.