Dolphin meat bad for the health, say Japanese scientists

Justin McCurry, guardian.co.uk 16 Oct 08;

Slices of raw whale meat - an expensive delicacy - are served in the Japanese coastal town of Wada

Japanese diners who enjoy tucking into dolphin meat are putting their health at risk, as well as courting international condemnation.

A new study by two Japanese universities found that residents of Taiji, a whaling town on the Pacific coast, who frequently ate the meat of pilot whale - a member of the dolphin family - have mercury levels 10 times the national average.

The hair of three tested residents contained quantities of mercury higher than 50 parts per million [ppm], a level that can lead to neurological problems.

Researchers from the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido and Daiichi University's College of Pharmaceutical Studies tested hair samples from 30 men and 20 women from the town between last December and July this year.

The average mercury level among the men was 21.6 ppm and 11.9 ppm among women - both about 10 times the national average. Three men with dangerously high levels of mercury said they ate pilot whale meat more than once a month.

Tetsuya Endo, a member of the research team, said the residents faced no immediate threats to their health but suggested they cut back on their dolphin and whale meat consumption, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Mercury levels halved among people who stopped eating the meat for two months.

Last year a study of dolphin meat served in school lunches in the Taiji area revealed mercury levels 10 to 16 times higher than the health ministry's accepted level of 0.4 ppm.

The latest warnings come as the town, about 280 miles west of Tokyo, begins its annual dolphin cull.

Local fishermen are expected to slaughter around 2,000 of the estimated 20,000 dolphins that will be killed in Japanese coastal waters between now and April.

The hunters bang on metal poles to drive pods of dolphins into secluded coves, where they are speared and hacked to death. The few that survive are sold to aquariums in Japan, Europe and the US.

Despite international condemnation of the culls, the people of Taiji, where coastal whaling is said to stretch back 400 years, claim the local economy would collapse if coastal whaling and dolphin hunting were banned.