Whales Back On Lunch Menu In Japans Schools!

[Guest guest]

[Very-very sad to see the nation of Japan doing this.

How horrible. Rick.]

 

Whales back on lunch menu

 

Source >

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1628891,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1628891,00.html

 

30/11/2004 13:55 - (SA)

Tokyo - Japan's whaling heartland will resume serving

whale meat to

schoolchildren after a gap of 20 years in a bid to

preserve the whaling

culture under attack from environmentalists, an

official said on

Tuesday.

 

Elementary and junior high school students in

southwestern Wakayama

prefecture will be served whale meat twice a month

starting in January,

local education board official Yoshiki Tachibana said.

 

It is the first time the province has served the meat

since

international

whaling was banned in 1982. Although no figures are

kept, nearly all of

Japan's schools have also since stopped serving the

traditional food.

 

Most of Wakayama's 490 schools, which have nearly 100

000 students, are

expected to serve whale burgers, fried whale seasoned

with soy sauce

and

sweetened cooking wine and other recipes, Tachibana

said.

 

" It is important for people in Wakayama to maintain

the whale culture

as we

had long been engaged in the whaling industry here, "

Tachibana said,

adding

there has been no complaint about the meal plan from

teachers or

parents.

 

" Also, the plan was realised as prices of whale meat

declined thanks to

an

increase in the quantity of catches in recent years, "

he said. Whale

meat is

now available in Japan at 120 yen ($1.17) per 100g.

 

Since 1987, Japan has used a loophole in the global

moratorium on

whaling

and killed whales for what it calls research.

 

The estimated 2 000 tons of meat from each year's cull

ends up in

supermarkets and restaurants.

 

Japan says the global ban on whaling is disrespectful

of its national

culture. The country failed in October to persuade a

UN convention in

Bangkok to ease the total trade ban on some Minke

whale populations.

 

Japan's research whaling fleet left the Wakayama port

of Shimonoseki in

mid-November on a mission to the Antarctic Ocean.

Another fleet heads

each

summer to the North Pacific, where endangered sei

whales are killed.

 

The annual cull totals about 700 large whales a year.