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Previous whale page Subsequent whale page Home January 12, 2000 WHALES ARE ACCUMULATING MORE TOXINS IN THEIR FLESH AS SEA WATER BECOMES MORE POLLUTED. This unfortunate situation has a good side, however. The people of Japan are beginning to question the safety of eating whale flesh. Sales have already slumped since Japanese and American scientists found dangerous levels of chemicals and heavy metals in half the 100 samples of whale flesh being sold in for human consumption in restaurants and markets. The result was that many stores, including one 300-store supermarket chain, stopped selling whale meat. In addition, the scientists found that 25% of the samples purported to be "whalemeat" were actually dolphin and that 0.5% were from highly endangered humpback and sperm whales. About half of all the samples proved to be contaminated with heavy metals or dangerous chemicals - including mercury, dioxins, DDT and PCBs - above the maximum levels allowed for human consumption under Japanese and international standards. They also found that a quarter of the samples were sold under false Japan's Fisheries Agency insisted then that whale flesh sold to consumers was not seriously contaminated. But in November, a separate study by the country's official Environment Agency confirmed that whales and dolphins were highly polluted. Further research suggested, in the words of one scientist, that eating just three ounces of dolphin meat or one ounce of liver "would cause significant health problems". Meanwhile, a seven-year study of children in the Faroe Islands has found that those whose mothers had eaten contaminated whalemeat during pregnancy were much more likely to suffer brain and heart damage. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Source: The Independent - London Publication date: Jan 09, 2000 THE WHALE may finally be saved from hunters - through being poisoned. Contamination from the pollution of the world's seas appears to be succeeding where environmentalists had failed. The people of Japan, the world's main whaling nation, are at last questioning the hunting of the leviathans after a major food scare. After high levels of dangerous heavy metals and chemicals were found in whale flesh, Japanese scientists advised against eating it, so sales
Meanwhile, it has been gradually winning the argument for a resumption of commercial whaling as the species it hunts - the minke whale - is abundant and would be in no danger of being seriously depleted. Japan has also used financial aid to persuade developing countries to join the whaling commission and support it. The discovery of the contamination of whale flesh, however, threatens to undermine its campaign. Last year, two Japanese toxicologists and two geneticists from Harvard University analyzed more than 100 samples of whale flesh bought in restaurants, shops and markets across Japan - in a study coordinated by the British-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the Swiss Coalition for the Protection of Whales.
They also found that a quarter of the samples were sold under false Japan's Fisheries Agency insisted then that whale flesh sold to consumers was not seriously contaminated. But in November, a separate study by the country's official Environment Agency confirmed that whales and dolphins were highly polluted. Further research suggested, in the words of one scientist, that eating just three ounces of dolphin meat or one ounce of liver "would cause significant health problems".
industry. Publication date: Jan 09, 2000 |