Mercury in Dolphins may be only Issue that Stops Cruel Annual Japanese Dolphin Slaughter

Unfortunately, the Japanese were not going to see the obvious cruelty in the horrible dolphin slaughter. Perhaps the presence of mercury in their meat will be the only thing that does.

To see video proof of the horror of the annual Japanese dolphin slaughter see our posting on it at http://geari.blogspot.com/search?q=dolphin+japan

Article:

Mercury risk poses threat to Japanese dolphin hunt

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/20/
asia/dolphin.php

By Martin Fackler

Published: February 20, 2008

TAIJI, Japan: For years, Western activists have traveled to this remote port to protest the annual dolphin "drive." And for years, local fishermen have ignored them, herding the animals into a small cove and slashing them until the tide flows red. But now a new menace may succeed where activists have failed: mercury.

This town of 3,500 residents on a majestic, rocky stretch of coast is fiercely proud of its centuries-old tradition of hunting dolphins and whaling. Residents are used to the international scorn that accompanies the dolphin drive, almost as much an annual ritual as the drive itself, and have closed ranks in the face of rising outrage - until now.

Dolphin meat is a prized local delicacy, served raw as sashimi or boiled with soy sauce. But in June, laboratory tests showed high levels of mercury in dolphin and pilot whale, a small whale that resembles a dolphin, caught and sold here. At the urging of two town council members, schools promised to stop serving pilot whale for lunch, and some local supermarkets removed it and dolphin from their shelves.

Rather than embrace the changes, this tight-knit community has been divided, with most local officials and the fishermen's union insisting that the mercury threat is being overblown, while a minority here has begun to question a tradition.

"We are not against whaling," including the dolphin hunts, said Junichiro Yamashita, one of the council members, who paid for the mercury tests himself after the town refused to pay. "This is a small town,

The problems are not limited to Taiji. Japan is one of the world's largest consumers of whales and dolphins, yet the Health and Agriculture ministries, as well as the media, have said little about the growing mercury levels in whale and dolphin meat.

Indeed, the whaling industry seems to enjoy a protected status here, mainly as a symbol of tradition, defended against foreign interference.

"There is a real danger in whale and dolphin meat, but word is not getting out," said Tetsuya Endo, a professor at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido and an expert on mercury in sea animals.

Japan kills 1,000 minke and other great whales every year in controversial research whaling off the coast of Antarctica and in the northern Pacific. Japan calls the hunt "research" in order to avoid an international ban on commercial whaling, but then sells the meat to supermarkets. One hundred more whales and 21,000 dolphins are killed annually in coastal waters, according to Japan's Fisheries Agency.

Still, the meat is hardly a vital food source: only a minority of Japanese eat whale, and dolphin is even less common, consumed in a handful of rural areas and regional cities like Osaka.

Taiji is the best known source of dolphin meat, partly because it kills the most animals, about 2,000 annually, in a season that runs from September to April. In Taiji, fishermen use a method called oikomi, or "the drive," in which they bang on metal poles to create a wall of sound that pushes panicked dolphin and pilot whales into a cove for killing.

Gruesome photos of the blood-filled cove, and protests by mostly Western environmental groups, seem to have only strengthened the town's resolve to hold fast to its customs. According to the town's whaling museum, the people of Taiji have hunted coastal whales for 400 years. With few other sources of livelihood, whaling is a mainstay of the local economy.

"We are a whaling community, and we don't want to lose that," said Katsutoshi Mihara, chairman of Taiji's town council. "Here, all boys grew up dreaming of hunting whales." (The Japanese word for whaling, hogei, also encompasses hunting dolphins.)

The mayor and most town leaders point to a Health Ministry report that said the meats are safe in moderation.

Strong proponents of whaling like Mihara say they fear that the mercury scare may damage the popularity of dolphin meat, which accounts for about a third of the town's $3 million fishing industry, according to the fishermen's association. Dolphin also fetches higher prices than other locally caught seafood: in a Taiji supermarket, a pound, or about half a kilogram, of frozen dolphin meat recently sold for about ¥1,500, or $14, roughly the price of sashimi-grade tuna.

Taiji's mercury debate comes amid rising worldwide concern over mercury in other, more globally accepted types of seafood, particularly tuna. Like tuna, dolphins and small whales are predators that appear to be accumulating mercury as they feed on fish in the world's increasingly contaminated oceans.

In fact, dolphins can build up far more mercury than tuna because dolphins live to about 40 years, versus a decade for large tuna species, said Endo, of the University of Hokkaido.

When consumed by humans over an extended period, mercury can cause birth defects, brain damage and death. In fact, the world's worst case of mercury poisoning occurred in Japan in the 1950s, when thousands were killed, made ill or crippled in the city of Minamata from mercury dumped into the sea as industrial waste.

Endo participated in the studies that first brought mercury risks in dolphin to light. Since 2000, he has tested hundreds of samples of dolphin and whale meat around the country. In dolphin and pilot whale, he has typically found mercury levels ranging from 10 to 100 parts per million, far above the Japanese government's advisory level of 0.4 parts per million.

The most contaminated sample he ever found was from the internal organs of a pilot whale sold in a Taiji supermarket - 2,000 parts per million.

Despite the extreme sensitivity to mercury poisoning in Japan because of the Minamata case, the Health and Agriculture ministries have done little to inform the public about mercury in whale and dolphin meat, say Endo and other biologists. While the Health Ministry has done its own surveys of dolphin and pilot whale that show mercury levels of 10 to 50 times the advisory level, the only warning it has issued is for pregnant women.

Ministry officials say broader warnings are not needed because the higher levels are not a health risk for most people if they eat the meat infrequently, giving the body time to discharge the mercury. But critics accuse the government and media of ignoring the mercury issue, including the dispute in Taiji.

The same wall of silence exists in Taiji, many residents said. Yamashita and the other council member who raised the mercury issue, Hisato Ryono, said local newspapers had not written about their warnings, and city hall has said little in public about mercury.

To get word out, the two paid to have 1,900 fliers printed and sent to locals.

Several residents said they were shocked and alarmed when they read the fliers last summer. They also said they were angry at the town government's failure to address the concerns over mercury, adding that they no longer ate dolphin meat.

The residents refused to give their names for fear of being ostracized by their neighbors. "The flier is all I know about the mercury issue," said one 42-year-old woman, who said she was worried because her third-grade child had eaten pilot whale meat at school.

Older residents dismissed the mercury fears, saying they had eaten dolphin all their lives without ill effect.

Such generational differences may be what finally ends the dolphin hunt. Most of those under 40 no longer eat the meat, according to many residents.

"We're not saying that consumption of dolphin should disappear, but I think it's inevitable that it will," said Ryono, the council member. "As the older generation disappears, so will demand for dolphin meat."