Dolphin meat from Okinawa
Additional test results have just arrived, expanding on those we posted last week.
Funded by BlueVoice.org, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan has taken samples from the meat of dolphins killed at Taiji, Japan and Okinawa as well as Beaked Whales in North Pacific waters. Extremely high toxic levels were found for PCBs in pilot whale meat sold at Taiji. High levels of mercury and methyl mercury were found in meat from dolphins killed at Okinawa.
BlueVoice.org will present these results at the International Whaling Commission starting July 10 both to stop the killing of dolphins on Okinawa and the importation of dolphin meat from Taiji to Okinawa. The people of Japan should not be exposed to levels of toxins many times the levels allowed by their ministry of health.
The Taiji reports in Japanese and English are downloadable PDFs at:
http://www.bluevoice.org/pdf/taiji_testresults_english.pdf
http://www.bluevoice.org/pdf/taiji_testresults_japanese.pdf
Results from Okinawa show:
Dolphin 1: mercury 6.5 ppm (16.5 x allowable)
methyl mercury 3.1 ppm (10.33 x allowable)
PCBs 2.4 ppm (4.8 x allowable)
Dolphin#2 mercury 3.88ppm (3.5 x allowable)
Methyl mercury 1.6ppm (4.8 x allowable)
PCBs 0.27 ppm (below allowable, probably because this was a calf.
Provisional regulatory levels of mercury and PCBs set by the Japanese government:
Mercury (T-Hg):0.4ppm, Methyl mercury (M-Hg):0.3ppm, PCBs:0.5ppm
Baird’s Beaked Whale was not contaminated by radiation but contained mercury:1.42ppm, methyl mercury:0.76ppm. PCB 0.10ppm
The meat was eaten on June 21 by nearly 40 school children, fifth grade of two primary schools before the meat had been tested. “This is important, because its mercury is 3.5 times higher and its PCBs is 1.5 times higher than the maximum allowance levels.” Sakae Hemmi, Elsa Nature Conservancy
