Whale Meat Served for School Lunches in Northern Japan, Report Says

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Whale Meat Served for School Lunches in Northern

Japan, Report Says

 

September 13, 2005 — By Associated Press

TOKYO — A public junior high school in Japan's

northern port town of Kushiro had a new item on the

menu for its students Monday -- rice topped with whale

curry.

 

The meat is from minke whales the local whalers had

caught just off the coast of Kushiro on Japan's

northernmost island of Hokkaido, Kyodo News agency

reported.

 

Whale meat returned to public school lunches in

Kushiro, the former whaling hub about 890 kilometers

(560 miles) northeast of Tokyo, last year for the

first time in 38 years as part of the city-sponsored

campaign to promote whale meat.

 

Whale meat dishes, however, are not on the menu every

day.

 

The whale curry will be served at elementary schools

in town on Tuesday, and whale meat croquettes are

planned in January, Kyodo said.

 

Japan on Friday started a seasonal hunt off Kushiro's

coast as part of a research program, which whaling

opponents say is little more than a thinly veiled

resumption of commercial whaling.

 

During the hunt that runs through Oct. 31, local

whalers plan to catch 60 minke whales under the

program approved by the International Whaling

Commission.

 

Along with the 60 it's allowed to catch off Kushiro,

Japan is also allowed by IWC to hunt 60 more off the

northern coast of its Honshu main island, as well as

440 minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean and 210 others

in the northwestern Pacific.

 

Japan's Fisheries Agency claims the hunt is aimed at

studying the whales' feeding patterns and their effect

on fish stocks.

 

Source: Associated Press