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Toxic Lunch
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Read below for more information on the feeding of mercury-contaminated dolphin meat to Japanese school children.
October 4, 2007 -- Japan Times
Ministry snubs meeting with foes of dolphin kill
U.S. activists waging a high-profile campaign against Japan's annual dolphin slaughter and sale of mercury-tainted dolphin meat were snubbed by government officials Friday in Tokyo when they tried to hand over a petition of protest they claim bears 50,000 signatures.
Members of Washington state-based antiwhaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society — including well-known Hollywood actress and board member Persia White — said they had planned to hand over the petition at a scheduled meeting at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's food safety department, but police and guards barred their entry.
"We flew over 5,000 miles to be stood up," said White, who stars in the sitcom "Girlfriends." The activists also tried to meet with the Fisheries Agency but were met with rejection there, the group said . . . read the full article
October 4, 2007 -- Time / CNN
Postcard: Taiji
Children in Taiji often wolf down tasty school lunches of short-finned pilot whale. Deep-fried dolphin and sweet-and-sour minke whale are also occasional cafeteria offerings in this small fishing town, where sea mammals have long been considered a reliable source of protein. Taiji (pop. 3,600) is proudly regarded as the birthplace of Japan's 400-year-old whaling industry. But Hisato Ryono, a local assemblyman whose uncle used to work as a commercial whaler, is having second thoughts about schools serving his sons flippered fare. Not because he is finally bowing to international opposition to the hunting of dolphins, which scientists rank among the most intelligent animals. Or because he is suddenly horrified by Taiji's annual dolphin cull, which starts in September and ends in so much bloodshed that the area's cerulean coves literally turn red.
Ryono is up in arms because recent tests show that dolphin meat sold in local supermarkets has mercury levels up to 29 times the acceptable maximum set by the Japanese Health Ministry. But these alarming results have not led the town government to ban dolphin meat from school cafeterias. Quite the contrary: Taiji officials are pushing ahead with plans to finish building a $2.9 million processing plant, roughly half of which will be reserved for butchering cetaceans--which include dolphins as well as whales . . . read the full article
September 19, 2007 -- The Japan Times Online
TIME TO KILL -
Tokyo sanctions an extended cull of Taiji dolphins
... This year, with special dispensation from the government's Fisheries Agency in Tokyo, those conducting the Isana Union's oikomi (drive fisheries) were allowed to begin their killings on Sept. 1 — a month earlier than normal — and to continue as usual until March 31. It means more money in the bank for those in Taiji who do their worst with lances and long-bladed knives. More money, too, for those involved in the subsequent butchering, packing and retailing of the toxic dolphin meat that far exceeds Japan's legal levels of mercury concentration . . . read the full article
September 4, 2007 -- Voice of America.com
Toxic Dolphin Meat Served in School Lunches in Japan
For the first time in Japan, two elected officials are warning the Japanese public of dangerous levels of mercury in dolphin meat, and condemned its consumption, especially in school lunches. They say the public is unaware of the health problems associated with the meat, and are on a mission to educate them. Catherine Makino reports from Tokyo.
Two city assemblymen from the fishing town of Taiji in the southern prefecture (state) of Wakayama, say short-fin dolphin meat was taken from supermarkets in the city and tested for mercury over the past year. Junichiro Yamashita and Hisato Yono say it contained more than 10 to 16 times the government's limit . . . read the full article
August 1, 2007 -- Reuters
Whalemeat in Japanese school lunches found toxic
Whalemeat served in school lunches in an area of rural Japan are contaminated with alarming levels of mercury, a local assemblyman said on Wednesday, calling for a halt in plans for the meat to be shipped to schools nationwide.
Hisato Ryono, a assemblyman in Taiji, a historic whaling town some 450 km (280 miles) west of Tokyo, said two samples of short-finned pilot whale had mercury levels 10 to 16 times more than advised by the Health Ministry.
The samples, bought from two local supermarkets, also had 10-12 times more methyl mercury than advised levels, he said.
Ryono and a fellow assemblyman conducted tests after local authorities ignored their calls to have the whalemeat inspected before it was served in school lunches in the town's kindergartens and elementary and junior high schools.
"We were shocked that it continued to be served in school lunches," Ryono told Reuters by phone . . . read the full article
November 1, 2006 -- The Japan Times Online
Dolphin kill dogged by mercury, activists
Nearly every day since the first week in September, fishermen have been driving pods of dolphins into quiet coves near the village of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, to kill them for their meat, whatever the mercury content, or sell them to marine parks.
Each year, between 2,000 and 3,000 dolphins are taken in Taiji, a little more than 10 percent of Japan's dolphin catch. Among the species killed there so far this season, which runs until March, have been bottlenose and risso dolphins.
Striped dolphins also have been killed in recent years, but it is not clear if any have been taken yet this season.
In the last two decades, an estimated 400,000 small cetaceans -- mostly porpoises -- have been killed off Japan, according to yearly hunting quota data from fishery co-ops . . . read the full article
November 30, 2005 -- The Japan Times Online
'Secret' dolphin slaughter defies protests
Japan's annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins began Oct. 8 in the traditional whaling town of Taiji on the Kii Peninsula of Honshu's Wakayama Prefecture. These "drive fisheries" triggered demonstrations, held under the "Japan Dolphin Day" banner, in 28 countries. The protests went almost entirely unreported in Japan, where only very few people are aware of what goes on.
The culling, spanning a period of six months, is officially condoned as part of traditional culture, and is described as "pest control" by practitioners. However, it is the inhumane way in which the mammals are killed, by stabbing and spearing them, that especially provokes such widespread revulsion.
. . . read the full article
Here is the same article in Japanese: page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4
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