A report revealing polluted whale, dolphin and porpoise products are still widely available in many parts of Japan. Some products tested were so polluted they could cause acute mercury poisoning from a single meal yet there is no legal provision to prohibit the sale of toxic whale meat
For its entire history, Japan’s commercial whaling industry has been dominated by three companies, Maruha, Nippon Suisan and Kyokuyo. These three companies are now powerful multinational seafood enterprises with extensive commercial seafood distribution interests in the EU, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand
For the past quarter of a century, Japan’s Dall’s porpoise hunt has been the largest cetacean hunt in the world, with as many as 17,700 animals slaughtered each year. The self-set catch quotas are based on abundance estimates more than 15-years-old while the hunt itself is clearly unsustainable
In 2001, Japanese company Nissui, long involved with the large scale commercial hunting of great whales, purchased seafood giant Gorton’s, Inc of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Gorton’s, the leading retail distributor of frozen fish products in the US, plays an important role in the financial success of Nissui
A briefing on the impacts of environmental degradation on whales, dolphins and porpoises.Human activities now threaten whales, dolphins and porpoises the world over with increasing noise, high pollutant burdens, depleted food resources and long-term habitat disruption due to climate change
A briefing to the International Whaling Commission on the impacts of pollution on cetaceans and humans who consume cetacean products. Many whales and all dolphins and porpoises are significantly at risk from pollution as they are long-lived and slow breeding animals in the upper levels of the food web