Strange Foods. Jerry Hopkins
“abundant whale stocks.” What, after all, is “abundant”? There are nearly two million sperm whales; is that “abundant”? Certainly that number would make the defenders of any other endangered species ecstatic. Yet, the sperm whale, found in all the earth’s oceans, is still one of the eight whale species on the CITES list. (The others are not so fortunate: the blue, bowhead, finback, gray, humpback, the right, and sei have populations far smaller, many in the tens of thousands and one, the right, is estimated to be down to 3,000.)
It is important to note that Japan reportedly claims to hunt the minke whale almost exclusively, a species whose estimated numbers, while smaller than those of the sperm whale, are regarded as sufficiently large to justify limited hunting and are, therefore, not on anyone’s endangered lists. (Smaller numbers of the Pacific Brydes whale are also taken-another whale not on any threatened list.) According to the Scientific Committee of the IWC, charged with maintaining population figures, there are approximately 760,000 minke whales in the Antarctic, another 118,000 in the North Atlantic, a further 25,000 in the Okhotsk Sea and Western Pacific.
Initially, Japan objected noisily to any controls, but then it discovered it could continue limited whaling with IWC approval under the cloak of “scientific research”-where it was believed that safe management of marine resources was not then possible because knowledge of the number of whales, age composition, sex ratio, and natural mortality rate was unknown or ambiguous. The research catch by Japan was thus introduced, with the IWC limiting the capture to 2,000 whales a year, to answer such questions and eliminate uncertainties.
While it is true that the Japanese are completing their task, contributing to the world’s knowledge of the Antarctic and its cetacean population, it may be noted that they also get to keep the whales. After scientific examination and removal of necessary tissue and organ samples, the remains of the whales are frozen and marketed in compliance with further provisions of the IWC, which forbid any part of the carcass to be wasted. Voilà! Whale blubber and steak.
Environmentalists contend that Japan is hiding behind “research” to keep whaling fleets intact, and whether or not this is true, there is ample evidence that eating whale meat in that country has a long history. Discoveries at archeological digs in Japan show that whale meat has been eaten at least to the second century B.C. (Whaling began in Norway, France and Spain in the ninth century A.D.) Furthermore, after the acceptance of Buddhism in Japan, which in its early years prohibited the consumption of flesh from four-legged animals, whale meat became an important source of protein. It has been found recorded on menus from a thousand years ago and by the Muromachi Period (1333-1568) it had come to be regarded as so important as to merit inclusion on a menu contained in official literature.
Japan’s whale meat consumption was about 10,000 thousand tons in the early 1920s, jumping to 40,000 tons by 1939. Its popularity accelerated again following World War Two, when other protein sources were severely limited, reaching a high of two hundred thousand tons in 1962. Since then, the market has fallen, to just under fifteen thousand tons in 1985. Today, it appears to be less than that, although figures are not revealed because of the controversy.
The Japanese people know that the whale is a mammal, but it is commonly treated as a “fish.” (As is the dolphin or porpoise.) For instance, a quarterly journal published by the Japan Whaling Association is called Isana, a word from the ancient Japanese language composed of two Chinese characters, for “brave” and “fish,” denoting a whale. The whale to the Japanese in earlier times was, therefore, a kind of courageous fish, thus it was served at joyous occasions such as weddings and other communal celebrations.
Japan has long been, and still is, a nation of fish-eaters and the whale was regarded as just another part of the harvest from the sea; just as it has been judged by indigenous peoples from the northwestern United States, where the Maah Indian tribe won the right from the IWC to resume a 1,500-year-old whaling tradition, pointing to a treaty with the U.S. government that dated back to 1855. On the southern tip of South America, the Yahgen people used smoke signals to summon neighbors whenever a whale was caught or found beached; families would come for miles around and camp out and feast for as long as a month.
Whale Steak with Vegetables
4½ lb. whale meat
2 cup red wine
1 cup water
15 juniper berries
2 dessert spoons black currant cordial
cream
cornflour
Brown the meat on all sides in a stew pot, add the red wine, water, and mashed juniper berries. Simmer under lid for about 30 minutes. Remove the meat and wrap it in aluminum foil while finishing making the gravy.
For the gravy, add the black currant cordial to the juices in the pan. Add cream to taste and thicken with cornflour. Cut the meat into thin slices and serve with potatoes, green peas, sprouts and mountain cranberries.
High North Alliance, 1994
So-called “whale bacon” is a popular snack in Japan-thin slices that include the blubber, seen below for sale in a Kyushu fish market.
The Japanese katakana letters spell the English word, pronounced “bacon-o.”
For a tribe of native North Americans, the Kwakuitl, such a find was highly ritualized. Preparing food was women’s work and the honors, in this case, went to the daughter of the hunter who found the whale. The choicest piece was given to the village chief and others received a share, according to their status, starting with the neck and working from the top down and from head to tail.
The harvest was then loaded into the canoes and taken home, where the blubber was cut into half-inch strips and boiled in water. When the oil separated, it was ladled into watertight storage containers and the remaining strings of blubber were threaded onto long thin pieces of cedar bark and hung to dry in the rafters of the house for at least a month. It could then be taken down and reboiled as needed.
It was back in 1931 when the International Convention for Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), one of the earliest monitoring groups, set rigid standards for “aboriginal/subsistence whaling.” The concept was to aid “local, aboriginal, indigenous, or native” communities in meeting their nutritional, subsistence, and cultural requirements, but the regulations soon proved unworkable. Aborigines, who themselves were never very clearly defined, were to use only canoes or other exclusively native craft propelled by oars or sails and were forbidden to carry firearms. In effect, IRCW was saying that if an exception was going to be made for the hungry natives, they would have to stick to ancient means of pursuit and capture, a inefficient hindrance that resulted in much wasted time, effort and meat. Over time, the rules were relaxed and today, modern whaling boats usually assist in providing the limited catch.
Some of these ships are from the former Soviet Union, one of several countries-Japan is another-accused of illegal whaling. According to figures released in a report commissioned by the Australian government, one of the loudest anti-whaling voices, Soviet fleets between 1947 and 1972 killed 48,000 humpback whales, one of the most endangered species, yet reported a catch of fewer than 3,000. The Soviets also were charged with killing 8,000 pygmy blue whales, while admitting to a catch of only ten. Anti-whaling critics also said that in Japan, as recently as 1998, DNA testing of whale meat on sale in local fish markets showed some of the meat was not from Japan’s “scientific” catch, but from protected species caught thousands of miles away from the authorized hunt areas.
Whatever its legal—or ethical—status, there is no doubt about the healthy nature of whale meat. Though richer in protein, whale meat has fewer calories than beef or pork, and it is substantially lower in cholesterol. To many Arctic peoples, salted whale meat has long been an indispensable part of the diet during the winter months, as it keeps longer than salted fish and tastes good as well.
Whales are classified into two groups, baleen whales and toothed whales. Unlike toothed whales,