EIA blog on the Dall’s porpoise hunt
December 13th, 2012http://www.eia-international.org/japans-hunt-for-the-dalls-porpoise-due-to-begin-again-today
PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT INCREASES AS JAPAN’S LARGEST DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER BEGINS
November 1st, 2010London, November 1, 2010: Campaigners are warning of the risk of a public health disaster unfolding in Japan while condemning the largest cetacean hunt in the world, which begins today in Japan’s coastal waters.
Up to 15,000 porpoises will be killed and their meat sold throughout Japan, despite an international moratorium on commercial whaling. The meat is sold for human consumption even though it contains dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals such as mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency and Campaign Whale jointly released the results of new chemical tests on 12 samples of Dall’s porpoise meat and blubber on sale in Iwate during March 2010. Eleven of the 12 products carried mercury and methyl-mercury levels in excess of Japan’s regulatory limits (0.4 and 0.3ppm, respectively), set to protect public health. The average mercury concentration in the 12 products was 1.1ppm, 2.75 times higher than the regulatory limit.
Clare Perry, EIA Senior Campaigner, said: “Dall’s porpoise products are sold locally in large quantities and customers are never warned that they contain high levels of mercury. In fact, they are encouraged to eat a lot of it as it’s sold for as little as 100 yen per 100g (£0.78/100g), compared to 300 yen for beef.”
While the dolphin drive hunt in Taiji, Japan, has received wide media coverage in recent months, 85-90 per cent of the 19,000 small whales, dolphins and porpoises killed in Japanese waters every year are Dall’s porpoises.
Dall’s porpoises are killed in hand-thrown harpoon hunts in northern Japan, an event that has remained the largest cetacean slaughter in the world for more than a quarter of a century. With fewer porpoises approaching the harpoon boats, some Japanese hunters now chase nursing porpoises, leaving their calves to starve.
The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has repeatedly expressed its concern that these hunts are “clearly unsustainable”. However, although the number of animals killed appears to have declined in recent years, the Japanese government still refuses to cooperate with the IWC on this issue and quotas remain at about 15,000 animals.
Falling catch levels could be due to a variety of factors; wholesale market prices for Dall’s porpoise meat have dropped from an average of 280 yen per kg in 2004 to 155 yen in 2008, possibly related to increased awareness of associated health risks as well as the glut of whale meat available as a result of Japan’s killing of other species. But despite lower catches, the Dall’s hunt is still the largest cetacean hunt in the world.
Andy Ottaway, Director of Campaign Whale, said: ‘We are very concerned that people in Japan are threatening their health and possibly that of their children by unwittingly eating Dall’s porpoise meat that is dangerously contaminated with poisons such as mercury and PCBs. We hope that the Japanese Government will act responsibly, stop these cruel and unsustainable hunts and take dolphins and porpoises off the menu.”
A briefing, still pictures and video clips are available on request.
Editors’ Notes
• The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Campaign Whale have tested 12 samples of Dall’s porpoise meat, finding average mercury levels of 1.10ppm and average methyl-mercury levels of 0.76ppm. The Japanese government regulatory limits for mercury and methyl-mercury in seafood are 0.4ppm and 0.3ppm.
• Since catch records began in the early 1960s, more than half a million Dall’s porpoises have been deliberately killed in Japan’s coastal waters. It is the largest direct hunt of any whale, dolphin or porpoise species in the world.
• The IWC Scientific Committee has expressed its concern over the unsustainability of Japan’s Dall’s porpoise hunt 12 times in the past 16 years.
• The International Whaling Commission affords no protection for small cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises), which are under increasing threat from direct hunting, entanglement in fishing gear, over-fishing of prey species and pollution.
For more information see www.eia-international.org
CW Nicol article on Taiji’s dolphin hunt
July 5th, 2010http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fe20100704cw.html
“Despite all our talk of of history, tradition, culture and the need for humans to take food from the sea, though, the one deadly nail that consistently stood out above the rest was the question of pollution. If cetacean meat, and especially the meat and blubber of dolphins taken off the coasts of Japan, is as seriously contaminated with mercury and other harmful chemicals as the evidence indicates, then surely the Japanese government must address this issue and bring it out into the open — either banning sales altogether or insisting on warning labels, depending on the degree of danger to humans.”
Daily Yomiuri article about toxic Taiji dolphins
May 17th, 2010Unusually high levels of mercury concentration have been detected in the hair of residents of Taijicho, Wakayama Prefecture, who are known to regularly eat whale and dolphin meat, according to an Environment Ministry research institute.
Mercury Rising - video by the Oceanic Preservation Society
April 19th, 2010news report on Dall’s porpoise hunt
March 13th, 201010th March, 2010 Japan’s seas run red in annual porpoise hunt
March 10th, 2010
New footage of the largest cetacean hunt in the world
THE fishing boats making their way into the port of Otsuchi, in northern Japan, seem an innocent enough sight, even picturesque – but in their wake is a sea stained red by the world’s single largest direct slaughter of cetaceans.
Every year, approximately 15,000 Dall’s porpoises are killed, out of sight and largely out of mind, in a hand harpoon hunt repeatedly described by International Whaling Commission (IWC) scientists as “clearly unsustainable”.
EIA witnessed around 40 Dall’s porpoises being landed at Otsuchi market on 9th March and a further 20 porpoises this morning. Market workers reacted angrily to attempts to film the porpoises, saying that they did not want any criticism of the hunt and the Fisheries Agency would not like it if they were filmed.
copyright Clare Perry/EIA
Once landed, the catch is processed and sold in supermarkets and fish markets across Japan, sometimes illegally mislabelled as “whale meat” to increase its value.
And unwitting consumers are not only being misled as to the source of the meat; like other small cetaceans, Dall’s porpoises carry high levels of a range of dangerous pollutants, including mercury and methylmercury. Some dolphins are so toxic that experts have suggested just one small meal could result in acute mercury poisoning.
London-based campaign group the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) travelled to Otsuchi, in the prefecture of Iwate, to monitor and raise awareness of the hunt in a bid to ensure its grossly detrimental impact on marine conservation and consumer health does not continue to be overlooked.
“Most Japanese people are completely unaware of this hunt – it’s the largest direct hunt of any whale, dolphin and porpoise in the world and is putting these animals at risk while producing hundreds of tonnes of toxic meat for human consumption,” warned Clare Perry, EIA investigator and coordinator of an international coalition of groups concerned about cetacean hunting and related health risks.
In the coastal area of Iwate, large quantities of Dall’s porpoise are sold cheaply, labelled as dolphin. A shop assistant in a supermarket in Yamada told EIA that it was a popular local dish.
However the biggest market for Dall’s porpoises lies in the south of Japan, particularly in the Shizuoka and Kyushu areas. EIA investigators have been told by courier companies transporting Dall’s porpoises to southern Japan that the meat is sold “all over Japan as minke meat”. According to a worker at the company: “It’s no big secret, everyone in the industry knows this”. These findings have been backed by independent DNA analyses. Mislabelling is a direct infringement of Japanese law, but enforcement is non-existent.
Between 2001 and 2007, EIA investigators made 35 sample purchases of Dall’s porpoise meat and blubber in the cities of Hokkaido, Shizuoka, Osaka, Shimonoseki and Fukuoka. Independent testing showed average mercury levels in the products to be 1.57ppm, almost four times higher than Japan’s regulatory limit of 0.4ppm. The highest mercury level of 6.93ppm was found in a sample of porpoise head meat, sold for sashimi.
Scientists have established a strong link between mercury in cetacean products and a variety of human diseases and medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis, immune subsystem suppression and hypertension. Threats to children include autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
“Despite the overwhelming scientific findings that coastal cetacean products can pose a risk to human health they remain on sale throughout Japan, and are even distributed to some Japanese schools as part of the obligatory school lunch programme,” said Perry.
For at least a quarter of a century, the Dall’s porpoise has suffered the same appalling over-exploitation that caused the collapse and near extinction of so many great whale populations around the world. The IWC is currently in the process of negotiating a ‘deal’ between whaling countries and non-whaling countries – but the fate of these smaller cetaceans is not being considered.
“Countries that claim to be interested in the conservation of cetaceans need to be raising this issue at the IWC,” said Perry. “It is unacceptable that IWC is preparing to give Japan commercial whaling quotas, without addressing its slaughter of up to 20,000 Dall’s porpoises and other coastal dolphins and whales each year.”
EDITORS’ NOTES
* Since catch records began in the early 1960s, more than half a million Dall’s porpoises have been deliberately killed in Japan’s coastal waters. It is the largest direct hunt of any whale, dolphin or porpoise species in the world.
* The Dall’s porpoise is named after William Healey Dall, who collected the first specimen off Alaska in the late 19th century. Dall’s and all other porpoises belong to a family called Phocoenidae. Like dolphins, they belong to the sub-order Odontocete (toothed whales), which in turn belongs to the order Cetacea, including all whales, dolphins and porpoises.
* Large scale hunting of Dall’s porpoises has taken place in Japanese waters for about 50 years. The average annual kill was between 5,000-10,000 animals during the 1960s and ’70s, but this rose to more than 40,000 after the IWC ban on commercial whaling in 1986. The ban saved many whale species from certain extinction, but unwittingly resulted in a new threat to Dall’s porpoises when Japan’s whaling companies turned to it to replace the minke whales they were no longer allowed to hunt. Dall’s porpoises were also traded to the south of Japan where over-hunting of striped dolphins had left a market demand for dolphin-type meat.
* Based on 1972 World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, Japan’s Health Ministry (JMHLW) set a consumption limit (PTWI) of 170µg of methylmercury (MeHg) in a 50kg person per week and blanket maximum contamination levels in seafood products of 0.3µg/g (parts per million – ppm) MeHg and 0.4ppm mercury (Hg). However whales and dolphins are excluded from these safety limits.
* A study published by Japanese scientists in August 2005 analysed 160 samples of small cetacean products sold on Japanese markets for human consumption, including nine samples of Dall’s porpoise meat. The average MeHg concentration over all Dall’s porpoise samples was 1.02µg/g, almost three-and-a-half times the recommended limit.
* Eight Dall’s porpoise blubber products analysed by Japanese scientists commissioned by EIA revealed high PCB levels, with one product purchased in Shizuoka, near Tokyo, having a concentration of 4ppm, a startling eight times higher than the regulatory level of 0.5ppm.
New Japanese website focuses on mercury pollution in top predators including cetaceans
February 8th, 2010The No More Mercury Poisoning Campaign has launched a new website - http://suigin-iranai.jp/ - in English and Japanese. The website featuring news, information and an online open letter to Japan’s food safety minister which people or groups can sign up to.
WHO and FAO discuss health risks to consumers of whale, dolphin and porpoise meat for the first time – Japan is one of the most affected countries
February 2nd, 2010Press Release: 27th January 2010
Geneva/Tokyo: This week the World Health Organisation WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are holding an expert consultation on the risks of fish consumption and – encouraged by a coalition of environmental groups – for the first time the health risks associated with consuming contaminated meat and blubber from whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans).
Within the last decade numerous scientific findings have been published, clearly showing extremely high levels of mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxic substances in cetacean products on sale for human consumption. During this period scientists have also found a strong correlation between the consumption of cetacean meat with a variety of human diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis, immune subsystem suppression, and hypertension. Threats to children include autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
In Japan, up to 20,000 toothed cetaceans in addition to over 1,000 large baleen whales are annually hunted and consumed. Toothed cetaceans mainly feed at the top of a complex marine food web and therefore may accumulate particularly high levels of toxic substances. It has also been found however that minke whales, a filter feeding species which typically feeds lower down the food chain, can also carry PCB and mercury levels above Japan’s own safety limits.
“Despite the overwhelming scientific findings that cetacean products can pose a risk to human health they remain on sale throughout Japan and are even distributed to some Japanese schools as part of the obligatory school lunch programme” states Clare Perry of the Environmental Investigation Agency and coordinator of an international coalition of groups concerned about cetacean hunting and related health risks.
Sakae Hemmi of the Japan based NGO Elsa Nature Conservancy said: “It is time for our government to stop the sale of cetacean products and properly inform consumers about these health risks. So far up to 90 percent of the Japanese citizens are not aware of these risks.”
Only recently Japanese scientists published new findings that show mercury levels in citizens of the Japanese whaling town Taiji up to 25 times higher than Japan’s average. In November a joint letter by Japanese consumer and food safety groups and international conservation organisations called on Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Minister of Consumer Affairs and Food Safety to prohibit the sale of polluted cetacean products.
———————————- ENDS ————————————
For further information or images, contact:
Sakae Hemmi, ELSA Nature Conservancy, Japan
chimarin@mtj.biglobe.ne.jp, Tel. +81-29-851-1637
Clare Perry, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
clareperry@eia-international.org Tel: +34 971510046 / +34 664348821
Dr. Sandra Altherr, Pro Wildlife
Sandra.altherr@prowildlife.de Tel: +49 89 81299-507
Sigrid Lueber, President OceanCare,
slueber@oceancare.org Tel: +41 79 475 2687
Dr. Birgith Sloth, Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals
Beeco11@yahoo.dk , Tel: +45 20890439
Andy Ottaway, Campaign Whale
andyo@campaign-whale.org, +44 1273 471403
Sue Fisher, Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society
sue.fisher@wdcs.org, +1 508 746-2522
Editors Notes
Evidence of the contamination of toothed whale, dolphin and porpoise products in Japan is widely available, including the following publications:
Endo, T. and Haraguchi, K. 2010. High mercury levels in hair samples from residents of Taiji, a Japanese whaling town. Marine Pollution Bulletin in press.
Endo, T., Hotta, Y., Haraguchi, K., and Sakata, M. 2003. Mercury Contamination in the Red Meat of Whales and Dolphins Marketed for Human Consumption in Japan. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2003, 37 (12), pp 2681–2685. Available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es034055n
Poisonous Policies – Japan’s failure to stop the sale of polluted whale, dolphin and porpoise products. Available in Japanese and English at http://www.eia-international.org/campaigns/species/cetaceans/reports/
Toxic Menu – Contamination of whale meat and impact on consumers’ health. Available at www.prowildlife.de/sites/default/files/toxic menue_lowres.pdf
Mercury Contamination is Threatening Our Dining Table – An Investigative Report. Available in English and Japanese, www.elsaenc.net/
Link to AERA magazine article (subscription): http://www.aera-net.jp/latest/backdetail.html?id=111
Link to open letter (English): http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports187-1.pdf
Link to the open letter (Japanese): http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports188-1.pdf
New Japanese Government urged to ban poisonous whale and dolphin products
November 24th, 2009Press Release: 24th November 2009
A worldwide alliance of environmental and consumer organisations today called on the Japan’s new government to take urgent action to stop the hunt of toothed cetaceans and ban the sale of contaminated whale, dolphin and porpoise products for human consumption in Japan.
Japan sets quotas for around 20,000 toothed cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and toothed whales) to be caught in Japanese coastal waters each year, with the products sold across Japan. Feeding at the top of the ocean food chain, these animals are highly contaminated with mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxic substances.
The highly acclaimed documentary ‘The Cove’ has recently put the spotlight on Japan’s controversial dolphin hunts in Taiji with unprecedented Japanese media coverage. However, most reports have failed to mention the levels of mercury typically found in dolphin and other toothed cetacean products. For decades scientists have found alarmingly high levels of mercury and other pollutants in cetacean products on sale in Japan. Concentrations in some samples have exceeded Japan’s own safety limit for mercury by up to 5,000 times, putting consumers at serious risk.
Clare Perry of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said: “People in Japan are not aware that around 15,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales are killed in Japan’s coastal waters each year for food products. Some of these animals are so polluted that experts have suggested that just one small meal could cause acute mercury poisoning. Legislation to stop the hunts and ban the sale of contaminated cetacean products is urgently required.”
Long-term exposure to mercury is known to cause neurological disorders (with impacts on reaction time, attention span, language and memory), an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis, immune subsystem suppression, and hypertension. Threats to children include autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – despite this, toothed cetacean products are still distributed to some schools in Japan as part of the obligatory school lunch programme.
Sakae Hemmi of the Japan based NGO Elsa Nature Conservancy said: “Our latest research indicates that 90% of people are not sufficiently informed about the high levels of toxic substances in dolphin products. Until legislation exists to ban the sale of contaminated cetacean products, retailers need to put warning labels on all whale, dolphin and porpoise products.”
Japan’s National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD), an offshoot of the Environment Ministry, has recently collected more than 1000 hair samples from citizens of Taiji to analyse the mercury content, with initial results indicating significantly higher levels than the national average. Leading Japanese magazine AERA commented that the examination failed to include standard established tests for Minamata disease and questioned the ability of the Environment Ministry to carry out an independent study.
An open letter from the alliance of organisations, which includes more than ten Japanese consumer and food safety groups, calls on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Minister of Fisheries to refrain from setting any future catch quotas for toothed cetaceans. The letter further calls on the Ministry of Health to prohibit the sale of polluted cetacean products and the newly established Consumers Affairs Agency to expedite the necessary action and legislation.
For further information or images, contact:
Clare Perry, Senior Campaigner, EIA
clareperry@eia-international.org Tel: +34971510046 / +34678064420
Dr. Sandra Altherr, Pro Wildlife
Sandra.altherr@prowildlife.de Tel: +49 (0) 89-81299-507
Sigrid Lueber, President OceanCare,
slueber@oceancare.org Tel: +41-79-475 2687
Dr. Birgith Sloth, Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals
Beeco11@yahoo.dk , Tel: +45 20890439
Editors Notes
Evidence of the contamination of toothed whale, dolphin and porpoise products in Japan is widely available, including the following publications:
Endo, T., Hotta, Y., Haraguchi, K., and Sakata, M. 2003. Mercury Contamination in the Red Meat of Whales and Dolphins Marketed for Human Consumption in Japan. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2003, 37 (12), pp 2681–2685. Available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es034055n
Poisonous Policies – Japan’s failure to stop the sale of polluted whale, dolphin and porpoise products. Available in Japanese and English at http://www.eia-international.org/campaigns/species/cetaceans/reports/
Toxic Menu – Contamination of whale meat and impact on consumers’ health. Available at www.prowildlife.de/sites/default/files/toxic menue_lowres.pdf
Mercury Contamination is Threatening Our Dining Table –An Investigative Report. Available in English and Japanese, www.elsaenc.net/
Link to AERA magazine article (subscription) - http://www.aera-net.jp/latest/backdetail.html?id=111
Link to open letter (English) – http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports187-1.pdf
Link to the open letter (Japanese) - http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports188-1.pdf
The organisations supporting this call are listed below:
Advocates for Animals, UK
All Life in a Viable Environment (地球生物会議), Japan
Animal Welfare Institute, USA
Blue Voice.org, USA
Campaign Whale, UK
Campaigns Against the Cruelty to Animals (CATCA), Canada
Canadian Marine Environment Protection Society, Canada,
Cetacean Society International, USA
Cocoon(コクーン), Japan
Consumers Union of Japan(日本消費者連盟), Japan
Dolphin Connection, USA
Dyrenes Venner, Denmark
Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project, USA
Eastern Caribbean Coalition for Environmental Awareness (ECCEA)
Elsa Nature Conservancy (エルザ自然保護の会), Japan
Fundacion Cethus, Argentina
Happy Tail (ハッピーテイル), Japan
Harmonics Life Center (ハーモニクスライフセンター), Japan
Humane Society International
Institute of Biodiversity in Japan (いきもの多様性研究所), Japan
In Defense of Animals (IDA), USA
International Fund for Animal Welfare
LegaSeaS International, USA
Lokahi (ロカヒ), Japan
Lunta no Niwa (るんたのにわ), Japan
Marine Connection, UK
MEER. e.v., Germany
National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA), South Africa
OceanCare, Switzerland
Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS), USA
Orca Network, USA
Pacific Whale Foundation, Hawaii, USA
PangeaSeed (パンゲアシード), Japan
Pro Wildlife, Germany
Project Jonah, New Zealand
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)
Save Japans Dolphins Coalition
Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals (GSM), Germany
Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals, Denmark
Tethys Research Institute, Italy
The Whaleman Foundation, USA
Tulsi, Dog & Vege-restaurant (トウルシー), Japan
NPO Uzu (うず), Japan
Warabe Mura (わらべ村), Japan
Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), UK
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), UK
Keisuke Amagasa(天笠啓祐): NO! GMO Campaign(遺伝子組み換え食品いらない！キャンペーン), Japan
Harukichi Onoduka(小野塚春吉): The Japan Scientists’ Association(日本科学者会議), Japan
Shoei Go: NPO Minga Village(みんが村), Shiga, Japan
Satish Kumar(サティシュ・クマール): chief editor of “Resurgence,” Japan(シューマッハ―・カレッジ創設者・エコロジー＆スピリチュアル雑誌「リサージェンス」編集長)