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The restaurant serves fried whale meat on a bun with salad greens and a sauce made of of mayonnaise and ketchup (isnt't that some other fast food burger joint's "secret sauce?"). The restaurant also serves a whale cutlet sandwich. Both the burger and the sandwich are made from Baird's Beaked whales and sell for 300 yen. Another "youth"-friendly dish is the whale hot dog, made from minke whales.
Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in keeping with an international moratorium on whaling. However, certain species such as the minke, are numerous enough for hunting. In fact, the number of whales may have increased to the point that they are damaging the ecosystem by eating too much fish.
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6-19-2006 @3:38PM Cary said... This is apalling: these restauranteurs and their customers should take a first hand look before making the decision to eat whale.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,5-2006280068,00.html
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6-19-2006 @4:00PM Lucy said... I studied abroad over the summer in a town called Hakodate, on the northern island of Hokkaido. There, they have a restaurant chain called Lucky Pierrot (sort of like a Dairy Queen) where I had a whale burger, or "kujira baagaa." It was awful, to say the least. It was a hunk of whale meat (which is so dark as to be almost black) covered in a fried coating and served on a sesame bun with mayo and lettuce. I'd say the taste is comparable to really tough beef, though maybe I didn't eat it at the right restaurant.
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6-19-2006 @7:03PM Jeff said... Really... it's the whales that are overfishing the oceans. Interesting.
My guess is that whaling continues for the same reason that the seal hunt in Canada continues. Dirty, ugly politics. Some politico somewhere is making his chops in Japan preaching to poor Japanese fisherman on how he's pushing the hunting of those evil whales and dolphins that are eating all of the fish. It has nothing to do with the overfishing by the humans over the last 40-50 years. Nope. It's those damn whales.
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6-19-2006 @7:28PM ~J~ said... Hmmm, it's a difficult one this. On one hand, I have no objections to the Whale been put into the foodchain. They are, afterall, a stable diet of many people who live in Arctic areas, and I'm quite sure the Japanese would also consider them an old traditional 'fish' (yes I know, they're a mammal!).
But if it's true that the Whales endure suffering before been placed on the plate, then yes that's totally wrong.
If you're going to kill for food, then at least respect the life.
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6-19-2006 @10:37PM Chris Green said... >In fact, the number of whales may have increased to the point that they are damaging the ecosystem by eating too much fish.
No one seriously believes this. Its a talking point from the pro-whaling block.
The minke whales are plentiful because of not being significantly hunted into modern times, and because of the whaling ban. The history of whaling consists of a continuous downard trend in the size of the species of whales hunted, as each successively smaller species becomes too rare to be a practical target animal.
I'm not an animal rights person. But whale (and shark) populations are too fragile to be a fishing target.
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6-20-2006 @10:02PM Adam said... Chris is exactly right.
I used to work in advertising (in Japan), and the "Whale populations increase as fish stocks decline" line is the shoddy ad copy these guys use regularly.
Yes, fish stocks are declining. Yes, whales are more plentiful than 50 years ago. Connection between the two? No.
These so-called scientists conduct "research" by pulling whales out of the water, cutting them open and then acting all appalled that the whales have a belly full of fish! Of all the nerve! Whales! Eating fish! Well, better eat this whale, while we've got him up here.
The whaling folks, especially the Cetacean Institute (a whale lobby in scientific garb) pander to the right-wing ultranationalists by making it a political issue a la "America runs every other aspect of our country; you're gonna let them tell us what to EAT, too?"
I love Japan and the Japanese people (I live in Japan). But these manipulative bastards make me sick.
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