News Forum - Japanese firm sells whale meat from vending machines

[Thaiger]

Whale meat is not to everyone’s taste, but a Japanese whaling company has enraged millions by selling whale meat from vending machines in an effort to boost consumption. Kyodo Senpaku led Japan’s whaling fleet during its controversial expeditions to the Southern Ocean. The company has now opened its first kujira (whale meat) “stores” at two …

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[Marble-eye]

Vera Lynn liked it so much that she wrote a song about it.... Whale Meat Again. 

[BigHewer]

From the article:

“According to a 2012 survey by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, 89% of Japanese people said they had not bought whale meat in the previous 12 months.”

That figure is around what I would have guessed. A dying tradition. From my experience, there are three main reasons most Japanese don’t eat whale:

1. Availability. You can’t just wander into the local supermarket and buy a whale steak (contrary to what some people abroad believe).

2. Whale tastes like crap.

3. A growing number of people feel it’s politically incorrect to do so. 

The nostalgia segment of the market will eventually fade away, which leaves us with the curious folk, of whom a large number will only eat it once (see point #2 above).

[Rookiescot]

Deep fried? 

[HolyCowCm]

I totally of draw the line on hunting whales unless you are like some Eskimo or indigenous people say like even in Russia for who it is truly a way of life for life and tradition. Norway, Iceland and Japan do not qualify and need to stop. Luckily the CCP Chinese do not hunt them, well supposedly do not hunt whales as they already account for eating 1/3 of the seafood caught and since 2015 they say 90% of the world stock is already depleted. They still are wiping out everything with bottom trawling catching everything in its path and they already depleted their waters near them in early 2000. 

 

[Bluesofa]

1 hour ago, Rookiescot said:

Deep fried? 

It must be an enormous pan to cook that.

1 hour ago, BigHewer said:

2. Whale tastes like crap.

The first time I ever went abroad was on a trip to the Soviet Union, we had whale meat there.
Tasted nothing like fish though, as I don't really like fish. From what I remember, it looked like chicken and tasted like beef.

[Rookiescot]

30 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

It must be an enormous pan to cook that.

The first time I ever went abroad was on a trip to the Soviet Union, we had whale meat there.
Tasted nothing like fish though, as I don't really like fish. From what I remember, it looked like chicken and tasted like beef.

Pretty much everything tastes like chicken.

Except humans. They taste like pork.

I erm read that somewhere. 

[BigHewer]

3 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

Tasted nothing like fish though, as I don't really like fish. From what I remember, it looked like chicken and tasted like beef.

Good description I would say. I would add “bland” or “low-quality” to the taste though. 

About 20 years ago, I was on transfer in out in the countryside and basically ate all my meals at this one place, pretty rough and cheap. I went in one night and everyone was eating whale (perhaps one had been caught that day?). Tasting is one thing, but as a main meal it’s only something you’d go for if you were starving and had no other choice. Awful stuff.

 

[HolyCowCm]

I wonder if a whales taste the same. And certainly different parts of it have a different taste one would imagine. 

[Grumpish]

4 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Except humans. They taste like pork.

I erm read that somewhere. 

Long pig? 

[MrStretch]

15 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

I totally of draw the line on hunting whales unless you are like some Eskimo or indigenous people say like even in Russia for who it is truly a way of life for life and tradition. Norway, Iceland and Japan do not qualify and need to stop.

Why? It was a tradition in those cultures, too.  Why differentiate?

14 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

The first time I ever went abroad was on a trip to the Soviet Union, we had whale meat there.
Tasted nothing like fish though...it looked like chicken and tasted like beef.

Why would you think it might taste of fish?  It's a mammal, not a fish.  Lots of things live in the water that aren't fish.

11 hours ago, BigHewer said:

Awful stuff.

While I have only had whale once, while in South Korea, I'd have to agree.  Maybe there are different flavors to different whales or cuts of meat but it wasn't something I want to eat again.

As for the general concept of eating whales and dolphins, this reactionary rage stems from the fact that indiscriminate hunting in the past nearly wiped them out and that humans recognize that there is an intelligence there not present in the cows, pigs, goats, fish, chicken, etc. that makes up most of a carnivore's diet.

Morally, I'm on the fence here as it seems that as long as harvesting the animals is sustainable then it's no different from any other animal eaten by humans.

[HolyCowCm]

4 hours ago, MrStretch said:

Why? It was a tradition in those cultures, too.  Why differentiate?

Reason being is now that it is basically a business not sustained on traditon for the most part as is primarily only a commercial avenue being exploited as exported with another big portion used as dog food. It doesn't fit the means by slaughtering them for business and basically their countries people on the whole do not eat it. So, if they kill whales as a way of tradition and for for that way of life, then it should be severely limited to the areas of where the people eat it and not allowed to be exported or used as commercial dog food. The numbers are quite low for who consumes it in both Iceland and Norway. The whales that are eaten population numbers are not exactly huge and unless it is truly a real tradition cultural thing should be halted. It should not be commercialised. These are smart smart animals, maybe better off to eat humans who have a lower than normal IQ.

[Karolyn]

Nowadays I am a vegan, and I have eaten whale. It was probably from a delphinid whale, caught in the Faroe Islands. It didn't taste memorable, good or bad. The ethical issues, if we are talking about non-threatened species, are no different from killing or eating any other mammal. Whatever is felt by the cetaceans during their harvesting, is nothing compared to the injustice that is suffered, by pigs and poultry on intensive farms. People are right to be concerned for animal welfare, but singling out whaling as uniquely evil, is quite a cultural arrogance, and a recent one too, given GB was once a whaling nation. Easier to judge the foreigners, then to use their peculiarities as a mirror, to explore one's own people, I suppose. 

Edited January 27, 2023 by Karolyn

[Karolyn]

The intelligence of cetaceans varies because they had a common origin, back in the Eocene epoch. Some cetaceans like bottlenose dolphins and orcas, are as smart as chimps, or smarter. This doesn't neccessarily apply across the cetacean crown clade. Recently sperm whale brains were compared to those of delphinids, and it was predicted they have much lower intelligence. (You can't study them in the lab.) freshwater river dolphins are solitary and there is no evidence of exceptional cognitive ability, as you might expect, given social complexity drives brain size. The one in the zoo at Iquitos uses a blanket to madturbate, which seems human-like to visitors, but pigs will do the same thing. Baleen whales again, you can't study in the lab. But as with sperm whales, there's no evidence there, for dolphin type intelligence. Probably sperm and baleen whales are as smart as herding ungulates, such as horses? In all, most cetaceans seem as smart as are other ungulates. 

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, Karolyn said:

People are right to be concerned for animal welfare, but singling out whaling as uniquely evil, is quite a cultural arrogance, and a recent one too, given GB was once a whaling nation. Easier to judge the foreigners, then to use their peculiarities as a mirror, to explore one's own people, I suppose.

Isn’t it about progress and development of a nation? Japan is as advanced as the U.K. and there’s an argument to say more advanced in some ways. The U.K. or GB stopped whaling in the mid 1960’s, almost 60 years ago. Yet Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to kill whales. While other nations may have the dubious excuse of lack of development to justify such activity, Japan, Norway and Iceland can’t.  

[Chatogaster]

1 hour ago, Karolyn said:

Nowadays I am a vegan, and I have eaten whale. It was probably from a delphinid whale, caught in the Faroe Islands. It didn't taste memorable, good or bad. The ethical issues, if we are talking about non-threatened species, are no different from killing or eating any other mammal. Whatever is felt by the cetaceans during their harvesting, is nothing compared to the injustice that is suffered, by pigs and poultry on intensive farms. People are right to be concerned for animal welfare, but singling out whaling as uniquely evil, is quite a cultural arrogance, and a recent one too, given GB was once a whaling nation. Easier to judge the foreigners, then to use their peculiarities as a mirror, to explore one's own people, I suppose. 

 

It requires some (very little) intelligence to be aware of suffering (which by my definition means it's not a momentary experience but something prolonged and remembered).

I fully agree that raising animals for consumption using purely productivity-driven farms causes much suffering when it concerns sufficiently intelligent animals like pigs and perhaps even poultry. However, at some level the concept of suffering becomes irrelevant. For instance, I would be skeptical if the same argument about suffering were to be made when it comes to e.g. shrimps or insects.

However, that context doesn't even apply to whales; I doubt (correct me if I'm wrong) that whales - regardless of which sub-species, their intelligence and thereby their potential for experiencing suffering - are farmed under dire conditions (other than the usual reduction of habitable space by humans). More likely, when they're harvested it's because they were hunted within their own natural environment and then killed. Their "suffering" is limited to the hour of their demise.

I'm not saying that makes it right (I actually believe it's wrong, albeit for other reasons), but I do believe that singling out whales (or rather, non-farmed animals) is not necessarily a sign of cultural arrogance.