Eating Whale Meat Will Kill You
Volume LXI · No. 3 · Madeira, Portugal · Wednesday June 24, 2009
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Several new studies document, once again, the terrible health consequences of eating contaminated whale and dolphin meat.
Whales and dolphins are top-level predators in the seas, so any contamination tends to become concentrated at these high trophic levels, due to biological magnification of toxins at each trophic level.
Whale researcher Dr. Roger Payne held a press conference on Monday afternoon with Blue Voice and Whaleman Foundation to underscore the dangers of whale and dolphin meat to consumers.
Toxic contamination of fish and whale meat, stated Dr. Payne, is “likely the most important public health problem in Japan.”
Yet, whaling countries insist that whale meat is good for people, and refuse to limit public consumption of these toxic products.
Mercury is the most important toxin found in whale meat, particularly in the meat of dolphins and small cetaceans. Ironically, Japan suffered one of the world’s worst environmental disasters in the 1950’s from mercury-contaminated fish, dubbed Minamata disease. In some cases, dolphin and small whale meat tested by scientists have shown higher levels of mercury than the fish that caused the disastrous poisoning in Minamata.
Mercury poisoning destroys neural fibers in the brain and throughout the body, causing loss of memory, nerve damage, and death. Mercury is especially harmful to fetuses, resulting in massive retardation rates among babies.
PCBs and DDT are additional toxins often found in high concentrations in whale and dolphin meat. These toxins are insidious, causing harm to the brain, nervous system, and immune system.
Furthermore, new toxic products are starting to show up in whales and dolphins as well, posing new poisoning problems in the future.
All of which is bad for dolphins and whales, AND very bad for consumers of dolphin and whale meat.
Why do whaling countries ignore the adverse health impacts of their whaling industries? Why are the government health agencies silent about these deadly killers? Is promoting the profits from commercial whaling really more important than the health of their people?