DNA Testing Finds Endangered Whale Meat in Restaurants

Genetic tests of whale meat from Japanese restaurants in Los Angeles and Seoul, South Korea, have confirmed the meat is from endangered animals. The Los Angeles bust was publicized in March, prompting a restaurant there to close, but finding the meat in South Korea was even more troubling. “This problem may be more widespread than […]

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Genetic tests of whale meat from Japanese restaurants in Los Angeles and Seoul, South Korea, have confirmed the meat is from endangered animals.

The Los Angeles bust was publicized in March, prompting a restaurant there to close, but finding the meat in South Korea was even more troubling.

"This problem may be more widespread than we originally thought," said Scott Baker, a whale researcher at Oregon State University. The identifications are described in a paper published April 13 in Biology Letters.

Killing sei, fin and minke whales was outlawed by the International Whaling Commission in 1986, and trade in their products is forbidden by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Possessing or selling whale meat is illegal in the United States. Japan and South Korea allow endangered whales caught as "bycatch" by fishermen to be sold. Japan also operates a research program that's been criticized as scientific cover for continued whale hunts.

whalesashimi2Sei whale meat from The Hump in Los Angeles, purchased last October by makers of the The Cove -- a documentary about Japanese dolphin hunting -- proved genetically similar to meat purchased at markets in Japan during 2007 and 2008. It likely came from the same whale population. The restaurant has since closed.

Of sei, minke and fin whale meat purchased last year by the paper's authors in an as-yet-unidentified South Korean restaurant, the fin whale matched with meat sold in Japan in 2007. It likely came from the same individual.

Baker's team has asked the Japanese government for access to its DNA registry of research whales. If granted, it could confirm the meat's origin in the Japanese research program. It could also implicate an unknown source, "a situation requiring urgent investigation," write the researchers.

Images: Oregon State University/Flickr: 1) From a restaurant in Seoul, a sashimi plate containing cuts from four whale and one dolphin species; 2) A waiter serves whale at The Hump restaurant in Los Angeles.

See Also:

Citation: "Genetic evidence of illegal trade in protected whales links Japan with the U.S. and South Korea." By Charles Baker, Debbie Steel, Yeyong Choi, Hang Lee, Kyung Kim, Yong Ma, Charles Hambleton, Louie Psihoyos and Robert Brownell Jr.. Biology Letters, April 13, 2010.

Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.