Toxic Whale Meat
The Japanese Whaling Association insists that whale meat is healthier than beef. But the truth is that it’s a cocktail of oceanic contaminants, the toxicity of which far outweighs any nutritional benefits. Pat Thomas reports
Whales, being at the top of the oceanic food chain, collect and store a wide range of environmental pollutants, including hormone disrupters such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and dioxins, as well as neurotoxic heavy metals, such as methylmercury.
A study carried out by Japanese scientists in June 2003 found that every single slice of whale red meat sampled exceeded that country’s limits on mercury contamination, with some samples containing almost 200 times the maximum ‘safe’ level. Similar levels of contamination have been found in whales caught in every ocean in the world.
The effect of eating mercury tainted meat on people in Japan is not well documented, but a 1997 Faroe Islands survey revealed neurological and developmental problems in children whose mothers ate whale meat frequently. Mercury levels in most of the samples from the 2003 Japanese study were higher than levels found in the pilot whales on which the Faroe Islands report focused, and so would have the potential to cause even more toxic damage.
The effects of other environmental contaminants found in whales are just as serious. PCBs can cause neurotoxicity (nerve damage), reproductive and developmental disorders, immune system suppression, liver damage and hormone disruption. DDT exposure is associated with certain cancer risks and neurological and reproductive disorders. Dioxins, among the most toxic substances known, can cause cancer, metabolic dysfunction and immune system disorders.
People who consume whale meat in the form of burgers, fritters, sashimi and school dinners are not only legitimising the murder of some of the most magnificent animals on earth, they are also killing themselves.
- This article was part of a larger investigation into whale meat which appeared in the July/August 2006 edition of the Ecologist.
