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Canada's bid to start whaling! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sent: Saturday, October 23, 1999 11:50 AM Subject: 50% OF JAPANESE WHALEMEAT LACED WITH POLLUTANTS > 50% OF JAPANESE WHALEMEAT LACED WITH POLLUTANTS > > TOKYO, Japan, October 22, 1999 (Lycos ENS) - Over half the whale, dolphin > and porpoise meat sold in Japan is so highly contaminated that it is unfit > for human consumption, while a quarter is mislabeled or misadvertised to the > public. > > A study conducted by scientists at Harvard University, Health Sciences > University of Hokkaido and the University of Greenwich, UK found dangerously > high levels of mercury and organochlorines including PCBs and the pesticides > DDT and Dieldrin - levels exceeding international regulatory limits. > > The study was done earlier this year by Harvard University's Steve Palumbi, > a professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and > Frank Cipriano of Harvard's Center for Conservation and Evolutionary > Genetics; Mark Simmonds, The University of Greenwich, Natural Resources > Institute in the UK; and Dr. Haraguchi, Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical > Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Japan. The results were > submitted to the May 1999 meeting of the International Whaling Commission. > > > This minke whale bacon sold in a shop in the Ameyoko Centre building in > Tokyo contains levels of PCBs and pesticides exceeding regulatory limits > established by a range of countries for fishery products. (Photo courtesy R. > Davis) > 130 samples of whalemeat were purchased from a variety of regular retail > outlets including shops, department stores, fish markets and restaurants, in > six cities across Japan. The samples included sashimi, salted and partially > cooked meat, "whale bacon," sliced blubber strips with attached skin, and > canned and cooked meat. > The Harvard scientists used molecular genetic analysis to identify what > species of cetacean the sample came from. Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical > Sciences and the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido then used > toxicological analyses to find out how contaminated the sample was. > > In a letter to the Japanese Minister of Health and Welfare and the Minister > of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the scientists urge an immediate ban > on the sale of contaminated products. "Our results further suggest a > critical need for the government to initiate a comprehensive legal > investigation of the relevant food industry, including processing, > distribution, labelling and marketing of foodstuffs containing cetacean > products," the scientists wrote. > > The Government of Japan so far maintains that whale meat is healthy and > nutritrious food. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

British group says whaling ban could be lifted April 23, 1999 Web posted at: 7:12 AM EDT (1112 GMT) LONDON (Reuters) -- The existing moratorium on whaling is in danger of being lifted as countries drop their opposition to the controversial practice, a British conservation group said on Friday. "A compromise with the whalers is now seriously being considered," the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) said in a statement. "This has followed on from a proposal originally made by the (whaling) commissioner for Ireland who suggested that Japan and Norway should be given official (and in some way) limited quotas -- meaning that the existing moratorium on whaling would be lifted," the WDCS said. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) decided in 1982 to ban whaling amid concern that many whale species were endangered. Since 1987, Japan has carried out so-called "scientific whaling" in which whale meat finds its way on to the Japanese market after study of the dead mammals by scientists. Norway resumed whaling in 1993, although it does not allow international trade in whale meat. The WDCS said that if a deal were made with Norway and Japan to establish some kind of quota, other countries too were likely to resume whaling. "The whole sad history of whaling shows that whaling can never be regulated. One whale stock after another was driven to the brink of extinction and the same will happen again now if we lift the moratorium," said Sue Fisher of the WDCS. Fisher said the Irish Commissioner Michael Canny had put forward proposals in 1997 to establish a global sanctuary for whales which would exclude coastal waters. "Basically, it would endorse a resumption of coastal whaling," Fisher told Reuters, saying the Irish proposal was like a sieve and would not be enforceable. "It worries us that several countries have become extremely wobbly and their opposition to commercial whaling has become compromised by the (Irish) compromise proposal," Fisher said. The WDCS said it would be calling for an end to all ongoing whaling activity at the next meeting of the IWC in May. Copyright 1999 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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