Word: whaled
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...does an admirable job of protecting the land - banning nuclear material, declaring the Antarctic to be a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science," and prohibiting any mining - but not the surrounding seas, which support a singular ecosystem ranging from krill to penguin, from seal to whale...
...near Taiji, accounting for nearly a tenth of the national haul. Some of the meat is consumed by humans. (No, it doesn't taste like chicken. Think gamier, chewier beef.) Some is used in pet food or animal feed. But much of it ends up frozen in the national whale-meat inventory, which contains thousands of tons of excess food...
Nevertheless, Japan is eager to expand its whaling industry. Coastal hunting of smaller cetaceans such as dolphins and pilot whales is not regulated by the International Whaling Commission. And Tokyo has repeatedly lobbied the global organization to allow it to resume coastal hunting of bigger species like minke whale. These still make their way onto Japanese dinner plates thanks to an exemption in an international whaling moratorium, passed in 1986, that allows larger species to be killed in the name of research...
Given the country's appetite for whale, it's not surprising that the new mercury studies have divided the tight-knit community of Taiji. "If whaling disappears, our town disappears," says Katsutoshi Mihara, the affable town-council chief. He casts doubt on the accuracy of the mercury tests, which were commissioned by Ryono and another Taiji assemblyman after rumors circulated that locally caught pilot-whale meat might be tainted. "Look at me," says Mihara, 69. "I'm made of whale, head to toe, and I'm fine...
...pressure from fishermen not to publicize the mercury results," he says. Some are afraid of losing their jobs if Taiji takes dolphin off the menu. But Yamashita is pushing an idea that, at least for the long term, may be a more palatable solution: "Instead of relying on whaling, we could shift the town's economy to whale-watching...