.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

David @ Tokyo

Perspective from Japan on whaling and whale meat, a spot of gourmet news, and monthly updates of whale meat stockpile statistics

9/13/2009

 

Fresh whale products in Kushiro

The Hokkaido Shimbun online newspaper has an article about special permit whale meat by-products lining the shops in Kushiro, with prices pretty much in line with those from last year.

Fresh meat from the minke whales caught under special permit in the waters off Kushiro is the source. The first whale was caught and landed on the 6th of September, and after biological samples such as stomach contents data were taken, around 500kg of fresh meat by-products filtered through the local market into retail shops.

One shop introduced in the article ordered in 70 kgs of product, and the chunks of red meat drew the attention of local people and tourists alike. Prices were noted as being between 380 and 500 yen per 100 grams, about the same as last year.

A 30 year staff member at the shop commented that "Kushiro's whale is much softer (than frozen whale meat products). We hope people will enjoy this taste which is only available at this time of year in Kushiro".

The special permit whaling will continue in the coast off Kushiro until mid October with a limit of 60 minke whales to be taken, the article notes.

Labels: ,


9/05/2009

 

Iceland fin whale catches

Sounds like the whaling in Iceland is going well.

We can tell, because WDCS is "outraged" and making assertions about the economics of the situation, as is prominent Icelandic anti-whaling voice Arni Finnsson, who also claims "damage to Iceland’s international reputation is huge" (by some undescribed measure).

Assuming the reports about the catches are accurate, this will amount to a significant amount of fin whale meat imports in to Japan, which should have a noticeable impact on the whale meat inventory statistics, after the imports take place. (Indeed, some may have been imported already.)

Good luck to Iceland's whalers in their efforts.

* * *

Update: Scrolling back through some history I see some earlier reports from August about the good progress:
1) Successful Whaling Season in Iceland
2) Whaling season in Iceland “a success”

* * *

2009/09/09
Another update: A New York Times blog has an related post entitled "Iceland Defends Its Hunt of 94 Fin Whales". It includes a piece from Iceland's IWC Commissioner, but in the comments section Arni Finnsson himself pops up to tell us what he thinks in some detail.

Interesting is that Finnsson appears convinced that the Japanese market for fin whale meat products is essentially satisfied as it is, and there will be no market for much of this years' Icelandic fin whale meat which he estimates through some kind of peculiar logic to be between 10 and 30 times too high in supply (if I am reading him correctly?). Regular readers of this blog who are familiar with the Japanese whale meat inventory statistics will likely see problems with his logic (as I do), and he also seems to have his facts wrong in one instance (at least), but at the end of the day time will tell whether the fin whale meat products gain export revenue for Iceland from the Japanese market or not.

I suspect that Finnsson won't be changing his anti-whaling stance even if/when the economic viability of this activity has been demonstrated, but we shall see.

Labels: ,


Archives

June 2004   July 2004   August 2004   September 2004   October 2004   November 2004   December 2004   January 2005   March 2005   April 2005   May 2005   June 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   October 2005   November 2005   December 2005   January 2006   February 2006   March 2006   April 2006   May 2006   June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   January 2010   February 2010   April 2010   May 2010   June 2010   July 2010   August 2010   September 2010   February 2011   March 2011   May 2013   June 2013  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?