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Iceland ships 1,700 tons of whale meat to Japan

21 Comments

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21 Comments
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What for? Strategic reserve? Plan to run nuclear power plant with it?

When I order whale something, I'm always the only one eating it. I don't know any Japanese in my entourage eating any whale product.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

must be getting low on dog food again in Japan

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

No respect for life...it's all about money.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Great, not I can finally get my whale bacon at the local stores again ! Back in business!

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Both Iceland and Japan expressing bloody-handed solidarity and giving the symbolic 'middle finger' to the world and rationality. Let's hope port protests cause the ship to be at sea so long they have to eat their cargo.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Whale sashimi, and whale furikake are to be experienced only in Japan, don't miss the chance to try it. This meat is now fully legally bought (no grey zones), I wonder what are the complaints?

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

This is why I never buy Japanese dog food.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@ebidsen. I tried several slices of "raw" whale at an izakaya once. It was pretty darn good, but way overpriced. I still don't get the obsession some japanese have with whale though. Wouldn't you rather go out for some fresh high quality sushi instead? Just sayin'

0 ( +1 / -1 )

According to the IUCN, the fin whale is classified as a globally endangered species because -- as a result of commercial whaling over-exploitation and regulatory violations -- the global population has declined by more than 70% in the last three generations (1929 - 2007). Furthermore, whales are highly migratory species and they don't belong to Iceland or any other country regardless of what EEZ they happen to be in at any given time. Also, the "whales eat too many fish" propaganda from pro-whaling countries has been repeatedly debunked.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Yeah, but like eating fresh

It's frozen solid.

actually no part of the whale is discarded

That may be true of your genuine subsistence whaling, where a village in the back of beyond divides one or two animals up to get them through the winter. It's not true of the huge whaling ships, which dump most of the whale back overboard and bring back only the 'better' cuts of meat. Heck, they can't even sell that - no way they are going to lug back tons of guts, bone and skin, to do what with - turn it into fertiliser and corsets?

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Their stockpiles must be going bad

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Great, not I can finally get my whale bacon at the local stores again ! Back in business! yep you can get your blood mercury levels back up to numbness levels once again! recalcitrance is no substitute for stupidity

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

So it is OK for the protest group that Iceland and Norway hunt and consume the whale, but not OK if the meat reaches to Japan?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

So this for what.... more research?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@WiliB Yup culinary and social research.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

So, this purchase will blow a huge hole in Japan's future plans to continue their "research" hunting in the south seas. Japan does not need to purchase this whale meat. There are already thousands of tons of frozen meat in storage that they cannot even give away. This purchase is just an attempt to gain some sort of solidarity from the only other countries hunting whales commercially. The current solution to the tons of frozen whale meat is to sell it to schools cheaply and force feed it to the young, like they did before the ban on commercial whaling.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

https://www.vesseltracker.com/en/ShipPhotos/948561-WINTER%20BAY-948561.html

Takes a few 20 foot containers on top => they do make Reefer containers. Being frozen and a longer summer trip the frozen meat will be inside where insulation can be thicker.

10-20 tons per 20 foot container. 170-85 containers ocean going on a rather smaller ship.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

further proof that japan's need for resuming the whale hunts are not linked to any scientific purpose.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Fin whales are an endangered species (IUCN 3.1) their numbers are down 95% in the last 100 years.. Sad.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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