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Consultant, Japan Whaling Association
The Los Angeles Times swallowed whole a highly questionable report on consumption of whale meat in Japan. The report, funded and publicized by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), resulted from work carried out by Stephen Palumbi, who along with several associates, has been on the payroll of anti-whaling groups like EarthTrust and IFAW since at least 1994.
Palumbi et al have consistently refused to allow independent scientists access to the original data underlying their 'findings' and much of their work has been criticized by experts in the field. TRAFFIC Japan, for example, an organization created by the World Wildlife Fund, carried out its own DNA study of Japanese markets and did not find meat from any of the protected species cited by Palumbi and his friends as being offered for sale there.
Palumbi used his LA Times interview as another occasion to claim falsely that he and his associates had discovered such protected species as humpback and blue whales in the Japanese market. The 'humpback whale' sample was originally identified by Palumbi and his friends as 'humpback/Antarctic minke' because they could not accurately identify its DNA. The 'blue whale' meat was not from a blue whale at all but from a fin whale-blue whale hybrid taken by Icelandic whalers and legally exported to Japan in 1989. Palumbi reported it as a fin/blue hybrid in his original findings.
As for sperm whales being endangered, as Palumbi apparently stated, sperm whales are among the most abundant of whales, with populations approaching 2 million, according to the U.S. government. Although sperm whales are protected under the IWC's commercial whaling moratorium, it is legal to sell meat from whales that died from entanglement in fishing nets or as a result of strandings.
I had to take issue, too, with the Times' headline calling dolphin meat 'illicit'. There is nothing illegal about taking, selling or eating dolphin meat in Japan. It is somewhat ironic, though, that the same anti-whaling groups who have been insisting for years that dolphins are whales (in order to associate their cute and clever traits with great whales) now find it deceptive to label dolphin meat as whale meat in the markets.
I also find it ironic that the Japanese, who are among the world's healthiest and longest-lived people, are being subject to dietary advice from a paid propagandist who claims to be concerned about Japanese children. Tuna and swordfish also contain high levels of mercury but neither we nor the Japanese eat enough to be affected. The Japanese eat far less whale and dolphin meat than we do tuna or swordfish.
I hope the Los Angeles Times would do a better and more sensible job of checking facts before it gives credence to such propaganda again.
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