Japan calls study warning of contaminated whale meat misleading

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Japan calls study warning of contaminated whale meat

misleading

Thu Jun 6, 9:22 AM ET

By KENJI HALL, Associated Press Writer

 

TOKYO - Japan on Thursday dismissed a recent study

that claims whale meat on sale here is tainted with

dangerously high levels of mercury, saying the marine

mammals examined by the researchers aren't even sold

as food in Japan.

 

 

In the latest issue of the British weekly New

Scientist, three researchers at the University of

Hokkaido in northern Japan claimed that whale meat

sold in Japan is so contaminated with mercury that

people who eat just a mouthful are at risk of brain

damage or passing the toxins to their unborn children.

They demanded that Tokyo impose tighter regulations.

 

Fisheries Agency official Takanori Nagatomo rejected

the claims, saying the dolphins and small-toothed

whales examined by the study are different from any of

the types Japan catches on its research whale hunts,

and later sells to fishmongers and restaurants.

 

" Those species are not caught by or sold in Japan, "

Nagatomo told reporters in Tokyo. He declined to

speculate on how the university researchers may have

acquired the marine mammals used in the study.

 

The scientists looked at 26 liver samples from

dolphins and small-toothed whales. When they measured

toxin levels in the samples, they found average

concentrations of 370 micrograms of mercury per gram

of liver — roughly 900 times the Japanese government's

safety limit of 0.4 micrograms per gram.

 

None of the samples were below the government limit,

and two exceeded the limit by nearly 5,000 times. The

findings will be published later in the trade journal

The Science of the Total Environment, the New

Scientist report said.

 

Nagatomo also objected to the researchers'

methodology, saying they should have examined flesh

and not organs.

 

" Whale organs are not sold anywhere in Japan, " he

said.

 

Reports of toxins found in large sea mammals that eat

fish and squid are not new. Many environmentalists

have cited pollutants as a threat to whales, and

warned that such contaminants have been found in whale

fatty tissue and meat sold in Japan.

 

Japan says it has detected low levels of heavy metals

and other toxins in the hundreds of whales — mostly

minke from the North Pacific and Antarctic oceans — it

hunts under a scientific program permitted by the

International Whaling Commission (news - web sites).

It says, however, that the levels are well below what

has been judged safe to eat.

 

" The average levels are about 0.03 micrograms per gram

of meat for whales caught in the Antarctic and 0.21

micrograms for those in the North Pacific, " Nagatomo

said.

 

Japan says its research hunts are needed to study the

mammals' migratory patterns and eating habits, and

that the proceeds from the sale of the meat go to

research, not profit.

 

Opponents, including the United States and Australia,

call Japan's research commercial whaling in disguise,

as most of the meat is sold to restaurants and shops

after the research. The IWC has banned commercial

whaling since 1986.

 

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