JAPANESE WHALE BURGERS

August 7, 2005

The Japanese Burger

Japan will also increase quotas for 2006, to more than double the number of

minke whales it kills in its so-called scientific whale hunts. Japanese harpoons

will target some 935 minkes next year, and the whalers also plan to kill

humpback and fin whales, the first time that these species have been hunted

since the whaling moratorium came into place in 1986. The scientific

justification for this hunt has been criticised by researchers world-wide, and

the IWC at its recent meeting called on Japan to scrap its research hunts.

As is the case with the Norwegian market, whale meat sales in Japan have been

consistently low, and Japan currently consumes between one and two percent of

the level of whale meat compared with levels 30 or 40 years ago.

Despite the concerns raised by the contaminant studies, showing dangerously high

levels of pollution in some whale meat products in the Japanese market place,

the government of Japan

continues to promote the consumption of whale meat - including offering whale

burgers to school children.

And in June of 2005, the Lucky Pierrot restaurant chain in Japan began selling

deep-fried minke whale burgers dressed with lettuce and mayonnaise for 380 yen

(US $3.50), saying that it was " to use up the whale meat from experiments " .

WDCS believes that the aim of this new " fast-food/convenience-food " marketing is

clear: to open up new domestic markets for the struggling whaling industry and

to increase profits. Both Norway and Japan have argued for years at the IWC that

their whaling is based on cultural tradition and need, but these latest cynical

attempts to profit from an inherently cruel, unnecessary and indeed unhealthy

industry point to the lie in that argument.

So, burger buyers, beware. The next time you take a bite out of a burger in

either Norway or Japan, there is a chance you might be eating whale meat.

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