Chef at Santa Monica whale sushi restaurant sentenced

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

May 5, 12:17 AM EDT

Chef at Santa Monica whale sushi restaurant sentenced

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A chef who worked at a Santa Monica restaurant that illegally served whale meat has been sentenced.

City News Service says Susumu Ueda was sentenced Monday to probation, fined $5,000 and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Ueda worked at The Hump at Santa Monica Airport. An investigation was launched after producers of the documentary "The Cove" secretly filmed meat from the federally protected sei whale being served at the sushi restaurant five years ago.

The restaurant closed.




Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WHALE_SUSHI?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-05-00-17-52

[shenmue]

1. Good

[C Moon]

2. They probably made a lot more than $5000 selling whale.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. I was shocked the first time I saw whale for sale, today not so much.

Whale Bacon


Whale Steak

David Nakamura wrote on "The Atlantic" website about his unwitting encounter with whale meat at the famed Tokyo izakaya Andy's Shin Hinomoto (2-4-4 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, tel. [phone]). "The meat was salty and chewy, though a bit tougher than corned beef. There was also a strip of white fat clinging to it," he said.

Nakamura was pretty sure at the point of mid-chew that it must have been some manner of cow-based product.

But no, this was whale meat. The dish tends to show up on menus across Japan -- albeit as a kind of 'dare' food for kids and a nostalgic flashback for the elderly who ate it at school in the impoverished '50s. Nakamura's experience is not so unusual: Likely a friend will order up some whale bacon and be mysteriously silent as he bids you to start digging in. As soon as the whale hits your mouth, sinister grinning will spread across the table.

The Japanese culinary embrace of whale is now a full-fledged global controversy, with animal activists launching complaints and local conservatives claiming a cultural right to eat whatever they want. The nutritional value is also up in the air: The meat is high in protein, but also high in toxins like mercury and PCB. Lost in the muddle is that there is not much everyday demand for whale amongst the normal population. No one eats a Minke without the 'Hey, Ma, I'm eatin' whale!' treatment.

http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/eat/eating-whale-taste-controversy-552326

[cui bono]

4. Maybe it's just me, but I wish you wouldn't post those pictures.

Seems to just glorify what we are trying to condemn. Personally I would love it if you would edit them out.

[abelenkpe]

6. Sinister grinning will spread across the table?

Some friend. Seriously sick and sad joke.

[Nihil]

7. Like they said: "amongst the normal population"

Only sick fucks like that moron think that eating whale is "funny"

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

8. Apparently this and sharkfin soup taste awful

It's a fucking taunt. They do it because they can.

[MisterP]

9. it is in fact mostly to appeal to the far right in Japan--it's a nationalist issue

some Canadians tried to do the same with sealing, but 0.2% of the economy of provinces representing 2% of Canada's economy was hardly a good base for it

[abelenkpe]

5. Kick