DNA Analysis Suggests Whale Meat from Sushi Restaurants in L.A., Seoul Originated from Japan

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2010) — An international team of Oregon State University scientists, documentary filmmakers and environmental advocates has uncovered an apparent illegal trade in whalemeat, linking whales killed in Japan's controversial scientific whaling program to sushi restaurants in Seoul, South Korea, and Los Angeles, Calif.

Genetic analysis of sashimi served at a prominent Los Angeles sushi restaurant in October of 2009 has confirmed that the strips of raw meat purchased by filmmakers of the Oscar-winning documentary, "The Cove," came from a sei whale -- most likely from Japanese "scientific whaling."

"The sequences were identical to sei whale products that had previously been purchased in Japan in 2007 and 2008, which means they not only came from the same area of the ocean -- but possibly from the same distinct population," said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, who conducted the analysis.

"Since the international moratorium, it has been assumed that there is no international trade in whale products," Baker said. "But when products from the same whale are sold in Japan in 2007 and in Korea in 2009, it suggests that international trade, though illegal, is still an issue.

Likewise, the Antarctic minke whale is not found in Korean waters, but it is hunted by Japan's controversial scientific whaling program in the Antarctic.

www.sciencedaily.com...

I knew there was a reason I don't like sushi. This is an abomination. Whales are one of the smartest creatures on earth. this continues on about the illegal whale trade worldwide.
Countries like Russia are sited as having illegally killed over 100,000 whales in the 20th century. And the numbers of documents that falsify records on whaling, and what some fishing vessels are doing.

This can not be allowed to continue. Nor is it a problem or issue just confined to Asian area countries like Japan, Korea and Russia. Whale meat is showing up and being sold as sushi in the United States, and I'm quite sure in other countries as well.

And it isn't just meat for food. There are a wide variety of whale products still being used on the market today and whales are still being illegally killed even this far into the 21st century.

I don't see the big deal.

The only restrictions on animals used for food should be domesticated animals...cats, dogs, horses etc., and EXTREMELY endanged species. But in general if an animal tastes good, we should be FREE to eat it. I hate the idea of governments telling us what we can and cannot eat.

Originally posted by Carseller4
I don't see the big deal.

The only restrictions on animals used for food should be domesticated animals...cats, dogs, horses etc., and EXTREMELY endanged species. But in general if an animal tastes good, we should be FREE to eat it. I hate the idea of governments telling us what we can and cannot eat.

But prepared properly, Horses are delicious; who are you to tell people what they can or cannot eat.

Why do you feel Domesticates shouldn't be eaten?

[edit on 4/14/2010 by eNumbra]

Originally posted by Carseller4
I don't see the big deal.

The only restrictions on animals used for food should be domesticated animals...cats, dogs, horses etc., and EXTREMELY endanged species. But in general if an animal tastes good, we should be FREE to eat it. I hate the idea of governments telling us what we can and cannot eat.

Sei whales are endangered. They are an internationally protected species. They were hunted to the brink of extinction throughout the last 150 years.

Over the last 100 years over a quarter of a million of this one species of whales were killed through "fishing." The worldwide population as of 2006 showed only about 54,000 of these whale left.

Animals...certainly all species of life on Earth have come and gone over the course of the last 2 billion years or so. Things do become extinct through natural selection. Through the order that allows life to exist. Humans have had the absolute worst impact on earth and it's species though.
So many different types of creatures have gone extinct just in the last few hundred years. Animals that thrived for thousands of years, if not tens of thousands of years. A lot because they "taste good."

We need to work with the Earth. Not against it in protecting life here.

No. I'm not some hippy activist. I just don't like the thought of an animal that has an intelligence higher than some people I have known being wiped off the face of the earth just because people think they taste good.

If there were only 1 million people on earth or less, then your theory might hold. But since we are pushing close to 6 billion people now, restrictions have to be placed, or there won't be anything left on this earth at all.


[edit on 14-4-2010 by webpirate]

Jokes on all those sushi/whale eaters....... mercury poisoning in them is astounding. Being top of the food chain in the ocean gives them the highest content of mercury out there. They re-package this meat as something else and get paid through the nose for it, while the consumer is poisoning themselves. Find out where your fish/ seafood is coming from.... it might save more than a whale....

reply to post by airteck


Both the Sei and Minke whales are baleen whales; they aren't really top of the food chain as all they eat are plankton. Not immune from various poisons at any rate, but neither of these are Toothed-Whales which are actual High-Chain predators.

The cove was an amazing movie and i will not eat fish now, even though i would not eat it before. They are slowly killing all the dolphins and whales by polluting the water and ofcourse killing them for meat.

I urge people to not eat fish, there is so much mercury in fish it's a joke.

Now places all over the world are probably selling Japanese meat from whale and dolphin and this is not good. we are F'ed in the A.

reply to post by eNumbra


Top of the food Chain- in implying they don't have natural predators. So they live a heck of a long time(30 -90 Years) and can consume a lot. Making them perfect candidates for a build up of mercury.

Originally posted by airteck
reply to post by eNumbra

 

Top of the food Chain- in implying they don't have natural predators.

Besides humans, and perhaps Toothed-whales like an Orca which do hunt other whales and are considered Apex predators; I wasn't trying to dispute, just a little clarification that the Minke and Sei would have less build up than an Orca and other actual oceanic predators.

Neither is by any means safe but the Sei and Minke are both small enough to be hunted by Killer Whales.

[edit on 4/14/2010 by eNumbra]

Originally posted by airteck
reply to post by eNumbra

 

Top of the food Chain- in implying they don't have natural predators.

Eventually I think too many species will actually have humans listed as natural predators.