Whale Meat - Species Hunted

Species Hunted

Minke whale is one of the most common species still hunted in substantial numbers.. Baleen whales other than the minke are endangered, though they are taken in numbers by indigenous peoples who traditionally hunt them, and more lately, the whaling nations have resumed hunting larger baleen whales openly.

In 1998-1999, Harvard researchers published their DNA identifications of samples of whalemeat they obtained in the Japanese market, and found that mingled among the presumably legal meat (i.e. minke whale meat) were a sizeable proportion of dolphin and porpoise meats, and instances of endangered species as fin whale and humpback whale (blue whale DNA was also detected in the study, but that researchers themselves have attributed it to crossbreeding with fin whales, and that view has since been strengthened).

In recent years Japan has resumed takings of North Pacific fin whale and sei whales in their research whaling. The fin whales are highly desired because they yield arguably the best quality of tail meat (onomi). Japanese research vessels refer to the harvested whale meat as incidental byproducts which have resulted from study. ` In Japan, the research whale meat were sold at officially published prices, but since 2011 an auction bid system has been adopted, and actual realized prices have not been posted.

The channels through which premium cuts as the tail meat of the fin whales remains opaque. A reportage by one of the Greenpeace Japan activists who intercepted whale meat package deliveries got no further than the sentiment by one restauranter that it would take Nagatachō (i.e. high government) connections to get it.