Revealing the Cove Dolphins' Toxic Secrets

[Omaha Steve]

As the killing season nears an end in Taiji, testing shows that dolphin meat sold at Japanese supermarkets is riddled with mercury.



(Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/11/revealing-cove-dolphins-toxic-secrets?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-02-11

February 11, 2015 By Salvatore Cardoni

Sal holds a political science degree from the George Washington University. He's written about all things environment since 2007.

With the dolphin-killing season in Taiji, Japan, nearing its expected March 1 end, meat from striped dolphins slain last month in the notorious cove has tested positive for high levels of mercury and for trace but legally safe levels of radiation, said Ric O'Barry of the Dolphin Project on Tuesday.

O'Barry, star of 2009's Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, which put a global spotlight on the town's annual hunt, purchased the meat in January from a Taiji supermarket and sent it to a Tokyo laboratory for testing.

Even without a smoking gun radiation test—which activists would have wielded to pressure the Japanese government to end the hunt—the mercury results, coupled with comparable findings in years past, will be used to educate the Japanese people on the dangers of eating mercury-rich dolphin sashimi.

O'Barry said growing awareness of contaminated dolphin meat has led to a decline in its consumption.

FULL story at link.