Mercury Poisons Japanese Whale Meat, New Tests Confirm

WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 2003 (ENS) - Packages of dolphin, porpoise and small whale meat and blubber purchased in Japanese supermarkets contain nearly five times more mercury than the Japanese government allows, according to chemical tests commissioned by environmental investigators. Their tests confirm what Japanese scientists have found - whale meat packages on the shelves contain illegal levels of mercury.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international campaigning group with offices in Washington and London, revealed today that mercury levels were much higher than permitted by regulation in 60 percent of the 72 products sampled.

Dolphin, porpoise and whale meat are widely available in Japan's retail outlets, and Japanese consumers face serious health risks when they eat these products, the organization warned.

EIA cetacean campaigner Mia Strickland said, "The government of Japan has been aware of the dangerously high levels of mercury in whales, dolphins and porpoises for several decades, but has taken little action to protect the consumers."

This fresh dolphin meat sold in Nachi Katsuuro, Wakayama exceeds safe maximum levels of mercury. (Photo courtesy Safety First)

The average mercury level was 1.88 ppm (parts per million), close to five times the provisional mercury level set by the Japanese Ministry of Health, which is 0.4 ppm. The average concentration of methylmercury was 1.11 ppm, nearly four times the maximum allowable levels.

According to Japan's Food Sanitation Law (JAS), it is prohibited to sell products with mercury or methylmercury levels in excess of 0.4 and 0.3 ppm respectively.

Strickland explains that whales, dolphins and porpoises are susceptible to accumulating toxics like mercury in their flesh, as they live for many years and feed high on the food chain, consuming animals that many themselves contain high levels of mercury.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, and scientists have found that even low concentrations can cause damage to nervous systems. Developing fetuses and children are especially at risk. Mercury enters the environment naturally and through industrial pollution.

In June 2003, The government of Japan released a health advisory warning pregnant and nursing women to limit their consumption of sperm whale, Baird's beaked whale, pilot whale an bottlenose dolphin due to contamination of mercury in these species, which can reach levels over 100 times higher than those commonly found in migratory fish such as tuna and swordfish.

The EIA views this health advisory as "a positive step," but says it "does not go far enough to protect the health of the Japanese public who consume these products."

Japanese scientists, too, have this year found dangerous levels of mercury in whale meat in Japanese markets.

The Japanese scientists bought samples from across the country, and found that every single slice of toothed whale red meat, Japan's most popular whale product, exceeded that country's provisional limit on mercury, with some samples containing almost 200 times the maximum allowable level.

The researchers also found that mercury levels were higher in whales caught off the coast of the southern part of the country. Nago, the southernmost of the six regions studied, had the highest average concentration, and levels decreased steadily moving northward.

"About 17,000 toothed whales are caught annually off the Japanese coast," says Tetsuya Endo, Ph.D., a professor at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Japan, and lead author of the paper. "Despite extreme contamination with mercury, toothed whale products have been sold for human consumption without any regulation."

The findings of Endo and his team appeared in the June 15 edition of "Environmental Science & Technology," a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

"These particular meat samples were from packaged food products that someone would have eaten, if they had not been purchased for pollutant analysis," says Frank Cipriano, Ph.D., director of the Conservation Genetics Laboratory at San Francisco State University. "This is a clear signal that Japan has a major health problem that the government has not addressed."

A supermarket case full of whale meat in Kobe, Japan (Photo courtesy Allen)

The researchers found that every sample exceeded the provisional mercury level set by the Japanese Ministry of Health. Out of nine different whale species identified, the lowest average mercury level was 1.26 ppm and the highest was 46.9 ppm, with the majority of species ranging from five to 10 ppm.

The two highest mercury levels in individual samples were 81 ppm found in a false killer whale, and 63.4 ppm found in a striped dolphin.

Taiji fishermen killed 69 striped dolphins on October 6 in the first hunt of the Wakayama drive fishery season, which runs from October through April.

The EIA, along with many other environmental organizations, objects to the Taiji dolphin hunt, not only on conservation grounds, but because these striped dolphins may be so contaminated with mercury that their flesh is not fit for human consumption.

"This October's hunt of striped dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama demonstrates that the government of Japan has still not taken the health of the Japanese public seriously," Strickland said. "Public health should not be compromised as a result of Japan's relentless campaign to resume commercial whaling worldwide."

The levels of mercury measured by the Japanese scientists are similar to or higher than the levels in fish eaten by people in the Minamata Bay area of Japan, Endo says. In the 1950s and early 1960s, hundreds of children were born with birth defects caused by their mothers' repeated consumption of fish contaminated with mercury.

The EIA is urging the Japanese government to immediately ban the sale of whale, dolphin and porpoise products that exceed mercury levels outlined in the Food Sanitation Law and the government mercury advisory.

Strickland went one step farther today. "With the release of undeniable evidence that mercury is a real and potent risk for consumers of whale, dolphin and porpoise products, the government of Japan should immediately ban the sale of all cetacean products and fully implement its own food safety laws," she said.

Mercury poisoning can cause neurological damage, sometimes resulting in impaired vision, speech and hearing, loss of coordination, reproductive disorders, paralysis and cerebral palsy. Severe cases can result in coma or death.