Dolphin Hunt Sags Amid Mercury Fears

[Barrett808]

Dolphin Hunt Sags Amid Mercury Fears
By JOSEPH COLEMAN

TAIJI, Japan (AP) — Every autumn and winter, hunters from this craggy Japanese fishing village corral thousands of dolphins into a tiny, isolated cove and kill them for meat and fertilizer, turning the water red with their blood.

And every year, foreign animal rights protesters converge on the town, interfering with the slaughter, clashing with fishermen and broadcasting grisly photographs of the slayings around the world — all without stopping the hunt.

Now, Japan's dolphin hunters face a new, powerful opponent: mercury contamination.

A series of scientific studies in recent years in Japan have documented high levels of the toxic heavy metal in dolphin meat, and a group of city councilmen in Taiji launched an unprecedented campaign against the hunt several months ago after doing their own tests.

A leading regional supermarket chain has pulled dolphin from its shelves over the health concerns, and hunt critics in the town say villagers are shunning it. Meat from pilot whales — a type of dolphin — was taken off local school lunch menus in October.

(more)

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCHAxyPTqoX2oi-UxjO8AF1PJGtwD8UGFCIO0

[gulfcoastliberal]

1. The dolphin slaughter makes me sick!

I wish the majority of Japanese people would insist their seafood industry go easier on marine life considering the super, duper thin ice we're skating on in terms of the marine biospheres. But I'm no hypocrite: it's not like my fellow citizens in the USA are taking to the streets to demand a better country and world... Shameful & sad!!