Mmmmmmmm....whale meat.
Posted on 09/05/2010 3:23:37 PM PDT by markomalley
TOKYO, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Japan, whose stocks of whale meat have risen to about 4,000 tons, is trying to increase consumption by putting it on school lunch menus, officials say.
The ironically named Institute of Cetacean Research, which conducts the government's whaling, provided whale meat to local municipalities for school lunches in 2009 at one-third the market price, which was $11 a pound, the Kyodo News service reported Sunday.
In 1962, Japanese whalers supplied about 220,000 tons of whale meat. That figure dropped off sharply to about 1,000 tons in the 1990's after an international moratorium on commercial whaling.
Whale meat, which often appeared in school lunches in the 1970s, disappeared from menus, the newspaper said.
Japan allegedly stopped commercial whaling in 1987, but continues its annual culling of whales under the guise of scientific research. The meat is marketed as a "byproduct" of whaling with the proceeds used to cover the government's expenses.
Countries and organizations opposing whaling have rapped Japan's slaughter of whales, saying what the country claims as research is a disguised form of commercial whaling.
"It is obvious that (Japan) continues whaling despite there being little demand," said Jun Hoshikawa, executive director of Greenpeace Japan.
Good! Eat ‘em up.
Mercury poisoning anyone?
Mmmmmmmm....whale meat.
I wonder how the hippies are handling this bit of news.
Got Blubber?
does anyone know what it tastes like?
A bit like beef. But frankly, beef is better.
Remembering back some 40 years, I had canned whalemeat I purchased from a Japanese market out of curiousity. I’m not trying to be funny here, but it tasted like fishy beef. It was meaty, but it was also oily. I only had it once... it wasn’t bad, as I recall.
I guess ... Drum roll please ... CHICKEN (of the sea)
...just like chicken! (had to do it :O)
It was this way until the 1980’s in Japan. Hunted whales are not endangered, and the Japanese has a thousand year old history of hunting them.
Hey, you can’t argue with success . They live longer than us.
It’s a very fatty red fish meat, much like a loose beef rump or equivalent. Japanese schools would fry it up in a patty into literal “whale burgers,” and it can also be eaten a sushi “kujirazushi” as well as several other ways.
It is seen as a cheapish meat in Japan.
Years ago I remember Japanese school children eating whale burgers. Why did that change?
With a bottle of Aji-no-moto on every table.
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