Ronald McAhab

[Guest guest]

http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/3518/Ronald_McAhab

 

 

Ronald McAhab

Sat, 25 Jun 2005 10:42:00 -0700

Summary:

 

Call me Ishmael… call me ignorant… Sushi I can understand. Drunk cow (

Kobe Beef ) I can understand. But whale burgers I just can't seem to

grasp. I don't want to seem ethnocentric—I understand different

cultures have varied diets due to geography and climate (i.e. the Nuer

of Africa drink cow's blood as a viable source of vitamin D, due to

lactose intolerance ), but this is causing a severe case of culture

shock. Something about eating cetaceans just goes against my better

nature. The worst part is that these whales are being used by a fast

food franchise. If the way the western world's burger franchises

processes its beef is any indication of the way these whales are being

used one may begin to wonder how long before the whale population is

drastically diminshed.

 

As far as arguing killing the whales to better help study them…

studying the social behavior and habits of whales is better done with

live ones. End of story. If it's the biological processes

(dissection/taxonomy) that they are concerned about I'm sure there

aren't any shortages of carcasses from beachings and strandings around

the world. Finally, if they're curious about the whales' diets… I

don't know about you, but I learned before even leaving grade school

that whales ate wooden little marionette boys and guys named Gepetto

and Jonah.

[Posted By variable]

By AP

Republished from Associated press

Whale burger goes on sale in Japan amid growing criticism

 

Thursday, 23 June 2005

 

Undercover Minke whale hunt:

 

Quicktime / Flash footage

 

Web transcript

 

TOKYO (AP) A fast food chain in northern Japan began offering a whale

burger on Thursday as anti-whaling nations urged Japan to cut back on

its catch at an international conference on whaling.

Restaurant chain Lucky Pierrot serves a burger with deep fried minke

whale meat and lettuce topped with mayonnaise at 380 yen (US$3.5;

euro2.9) at its 10 joints in Hakodate on Japan's northern island of

Hokkaido, once a whaling hub in the nation.

 

Japan is facing increasing international criticism for its research

whaling program in which the whales are killed in order to study them

and their meat is then sold. Critics say it is commercial hunting in

disguise.

 

Miku Oh, an official for Lucky Pierrot, said that the chain is only

utilizing stock meat obtained from the scientific research and that it

wants to preserve the culture of eating whale meat.

 

" People in other countries may think (eating whale) is strange, but it

is our culture,'' she said.

 

Oh said that the whale for the burger is cooked in such a way that " it

tastes like beef and tuna, and since it is deep fried it has no odor.''

 

At an annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission,

currently being held in Ulsan, South Korea, anti-whaling countries

passed a resolution Wednesday urging Japan to drop plans to more than

double the number of whales it hunts each year for research.

 

The commission also has rejected a proposal earlier to end its almost

two-decade-old ban on commercial whaling, dealing a blow to Japan and

other pro-whaling nations that say stocks of some species have

recovered enough to allow limited hunts.

 

Japan says it must kill whales to properly study them, including their

stomach contents to glean details of their diets.

 

Environmental groups and anti-whaling countries, including the United

States and Britain, say Japan's research whaling program is a thinly

disguised commercial whaling venture, stressing that meat from the

whales is sold to Japanese supermarkets and restaurants to help fund

the program.

 

Annually, Japan kills about 400 minke whales in the Antarctic and

another 210 whales (100 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales, 50 sei whales

and 10 sperm whales) in the northwestern Pacific.