On May 10, in a front-page lead story headlined “Taiji locals test high for mercury,” The Japan Times reported the results of tests by the National Institute of Minamata Disease (NIMD) that found “extremely high methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentrations in the hair of some residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, where people have a tradition of eating whale and dolphin.”<more…>

The following are the results of certified and documented tests of Total Mercury (T-Hg) found in random samples of dolphin meat purchased from supermarkets in Taiji and Shingu, Wakayama Prefecture, in 2006-2008.

Hideki Moronuki, deputy director of the Far Seas Fishery Division of the Fisheries Agency, seems proud of his body’s high mercury level due to him having “eaten so much fish.” BOYD HARNELL PHOTO

The test system used is known as Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.<more..>

Toxic Chemicals in Whale and Dolphin Meat in Japan Health Consequences for Japanese Consumers

Some 18-thousand Dall’s porpoise are killed each year off Northern Japan. Permits to kill some three thousand dolphins and small whales off the main island of Honshu are in effect. Most of the dolphins taken are slaughtered for meat. An increasing number are taken into captivity and shipped to oceanaria, mostly in Asia. <More..>

Excessive ingestion of mercury—a health hazard associated with consuming predatory fishes—damages neurological, sensory-motor and cardiovascular functioning. The mercury levels found in Bigeye Tuna (Thunnus obesus) and bluefin tuna species (Thunnus maccoyii, Thunnus orientalis, and Thunnus thynnus), exceed or approach levels permissible by Canada, the European Union, Japan, the US, and the World Health Organization. We used DNA barcodes to identify tuna sushi samples analysed for mercury and demonstrate that the ability to identify cryptic samples in the market place allows regulatory agencies to more accurately measure the risk faced by fish consumers and enact policies that better safeguard their health. <Go to Report>

PARIS — Tuna sushi bought at a range of US restaurants and supermarkets had mercury that breached levels set by health watchdogs, a study published on Wednesday said.

The offending samples included bluefin tuna, the hugely-prized species that has been plunged into a fierce conservation battle, the researchers reported in the British journal Biology Letters.

One hundred sushi samples were collected from 54 restaurants and 15 supermarkets in New York, New Jersey and Colorado, comprising “akami” (lean red tuna) as well as “toro” (fatty tuna).

The species were identified using a DNA fingerprint test and the samples were then tested for mercury levels.<more..>

AIRED ON PBS JUNE 26, 2007

Dr. Pal Weihe is chief physician at the Department of Occupational and Public Health in the Faroese Hospital System. He studied epidemiology and occupational medicine in Denmark for 20 years before returning to his native Faroe Islands, where he spent the next 20 years studying the effects of mercury, a result of the Faroese tradition of eating whale meat.

In this interview with FRONTLINE/World reporter Serene Fang, Weihe talks about how his initial findings released in 1997 were received by a small protective community that has been hunting and eating pilot whales for more than a thousand years. Weihe’s study is now the benchmark for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He explains here what his study of children and adults on the islands revealed. <more>