Japan Serves Whale Meat, Urges Hunt

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Japan Serves Whale Meat, Urges Hunt

Tue Apr 9,12:05 PM ET

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer

 

Officials handed out canned whale stew and deep-fried

whale meat in a Tokyo shopping area Tuesday — national

Whale Day — to drum up support for a resumption of

commercial whaling.

 

Hundreds of people lined up in Tokyo's main youth

fashion district to munch on a treat that was once a

mainstay of school lunches but has now become a pricey

delicacy.

 

" I've never tasted whale meat in my life, " said

25-year-old Eri Sugiyama, as she popped a piece of

deep-fried whale tempura into her mouth. " It would be

even nicer with beer. "

 

The whaling officials who dished out the morsels wore

T-shirts embossed with the government's new hunting

slogan: " Protect and Eat. "

 

The event comes just weeks ahead of this year's

International Whaling Commission (news - web sites)

meeting in the southwestern city of Shimonoseki, the

nation's former whaling hub.

 

The whaling body banned commercial whaling in 1986 but

allows Japan to hunt whales for research. Tokyo says

the program gauges whale migration patterns,

population trends and diet, but opponents call it

commercial whaling in disguise since most of the meat

ends up in restaurants.

 

" Whale meat has been part of the Japanese diet for

centuries as the gift from the sea, " Japan Whaling

Association President Keiichi Nakajima said. " I would

like many young people to taste it and learn more

about our cultural heritage. "

 

Recent polls show that younger Japanese support

whaling much less than their elders. But Tuesday's

event appeared to go a little way toward changing

that.

 

" It's yummy, it tastes like beef, " said 16-year-old

Mako Yamada, who nibbled on the whale meat with a

classmate. " We have to tell out friends we ate whale

meat! "

 

The flesh distributed Tuesday came from minkes Japan

hunted during what it described as a research

expedition in the northwest Pacific in 2000.

 

Japan conducts two whale hunts every year. During the

last season, it caught 100 minkes, 50 Bryde's whales

and eight sperm whales in the northwest Pacific, and

440 minkes in the Antarctic.

 

 

 

 

 

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