Save the Whales... For Dinner

-#include virtual="/time/asia/magazine/2003/0707/thisweek.txt"-->Japan has long butted heads with the International Whaling Commission, claiming that the body's strict antiwhaling regulations are an affront to whale-loving Japanese culture—and taste buds. Last week, however, the country's Fisheries Agency proposed a compromise that the whale-eating lobby may be able to stomach: allow the meat of beached whales to be used for human consumption. The agency claims the policy change—carcasses of whales that flop ashore must be incinerated or buried under current law—is motivated primarily by a need to save money. In January 2002, for example, officials spent more than $500,000 to dispose of 14 stranded sperm whales, despite repeated requests to sell the meat. With an increasing number of whales beaching themselves on Japanese shores because of environmental changes in the oceans, that's a whole lot of good grub that's going to waste.

If you're blubbering over the prospect of hungry cetacean connoisseurs waiting on shore with carving knives and barbecue grills and using CDs of Songs of the Humpback Whale for bait, you're not alone. Junko Sakurai of Greenpeace Japan doubts officials will make much of an effort to rescue beached whales if they know they can trade them in at the local supermarket. "We have pork, chicken, beef and fish. Why do we need whale?" says Sakurai, although as a member of Greenpeace, she may not be the best judge of the succulent taste of a nicely grilled finback-whale steak.

In any case, whale meat is no longer fashionable among many Japanese, especially the young, so the issue has become less about taste than national pride. "We don't want to be told what to do," says Takanori Nagatomo, chief of the Whaling Section of the Fisheries Agency. Until the whole country decides to go whaleless, Shamu would be wise to steer clear of Japan.