The environmental organization filed a lawsuit demanding its removal “toxic” meat dolphin from the Japanese market, after the tests showed mercury levels are 100 times higher from the recommended safety limits.

The Australian non-governmental organization Action for Dolphins (AFD) has filed a lawsuit amid constant warnings from experts that eating dolphin meat can turned out to be dangerous for public health.

On October 13, 2022, an AFD researcher from Japan ordered two packs of Risso dolphin entrails from Yahoo! Japan. His order was received two days later and sent straight to a lab in Japan for further testing.

According to AFD, as it turned out from the control, in the first sample the level of mercury was 97.5 times higher than the permissible level, and the second sample also contained the insides of the same species of dolphins. showed levels 80 times higher from safety limits.

“There are numerous test results over the decade showing potentially toxic levels of mercury in whale and dolphin meat sold through Yahoo! Japan. There is a lack of information and labeling… The meat can be bought by anyone, including pregnant women, which is especially problematic,” said Hannah Tate, the organization’s managing director, hoping the results and the lawsuit will lead to the removal of dangerous meat. from supermarkets, markets, restaurants and online stores.

According to Russell Fielding, an assistant professor at Coastal Carolina University who has done extensive research on cetaceans and mercury concentrations, regularly eating meat with these levels of contamination can cause health problems.

This trial is the last episode in wider AFD campaign to end dolphin hunting in Taiji, where the annual massacre of hundreds of marine mammals was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.

In a rare Guardian interview a few years ago, local dolphin hunters said they were simply protecting a traditional industry by hunting, accusing critics of undermining the region’s culinary traditions.

Source: Guardian