Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read. Toward the bottom of this post you’ll find my favorite quote for 2013: Salmon News: “We think something happened in the ocean.”
The good news is the Japanese are still eating whales, even though you could light up Tokyo with the radiation in a whale liver. Seaweed, too, they’re still eating.
[This sushi thing’s something I’m going to miss. Used to always look forward to going to Tao Lyn Oriental Market in Albuquerque and buying packets of seaweed and sushi ingredients. That’s probably something I won’t be doing again.]
The bad news is that the Japanese will likely pass up the rest of the human species in the race to the next evolutionary step. Possible good news is they’ll devote that extra intelligence in the second head to actually improving Toyotas into the next evolutionary level.
http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=879
[Nice pic of a half-butchered red whale]
http://factsanddetails.com/media/2/20090819-Ray%20Kinnane%2030257371_redwhale.jpg
Love of Whale Meat in Japan
Home > Japan > 05Animals…
WHALES, WHALE MEAT, SCIENTIFIC WHALING, WHALE HUNTS AND JAPAN
Many Japanese, especially older and middle-ages ones enjoy eating whale meat. It is sauteed, roasted and eaten raw. Japanese say it tastes more like beef than fish. Whale bacon sells for as much as $180 a pound at gourmet food shops and dishes made with whale go for as much as $100 a plate at restaurants.
[Nice pic of a Japanese Whale Hamburger – tastes just like pork or chicken]
http://factsanddetails.com/media/2/20090819-minke%20whale%20bruger%20at%20hakodate%20restuarants%20BBC%20_40657000_ap_burger203.jpg
Whale meat is dark red and doesn’t look at like fish meat. Japanese consider blue, fin and sei whales to be the most delicious. Sperm whales aren’t regarded as very tasty. Humpback meat isn’t considered that good but the organs are palatable. Japanese generally like minke whales less than other species because they are small and don’t contain much fat, which is what the Japanese love. Meat from minke whales is the easiest to get today. Before the 1987 ban on whaling the Japanese didn’t even hunt them.
Whale meat in Japan has traditionally made into stews with soy sauce and spinach. These stews are now made with beef or pork. In the whaling town of Wadamachi in Chiba you can get whale steaks, whale jerky, carved whale-tooth jewelry and even a one-meter-long decorated whale penis. Some towns sell whale nose cartilage pickled in sake in cans with a spouting whale. Those who have tried it said the cartilage has a crispy texture and a pungent taste.
Taruichi, a Tokyo restaurant that specializes in whale meat, offers 36 choices: fried whale, whale bacon, whale heart, whale testicles, whale kidney and even ice cream made with whale fat. Boiled tongue is said to be particularly delicious. At whale restaurants in Shimonoseki you can get fried whale tail, grilled whale tongue wafers, boiled blubber and whale sashimi. In some places you can get sliced whale skin and whale burgers made with fried minke whale.
Whale meat distributors claim that whale meat is high in protein and low in calories and have alleviated the problem of toughness associated with whale meat through improved freezing techniques. The tail meat sells for as much $70 a pound and is prized for whale sashimi. which is eaten with grated garlic or ginger to mask the odor. The health benefits of whale meat is a matter of some debate. On study found that Japanese in Wakayama Prefecture that eat pilot whale have high levels of mercury in their hair.
Meanwhile, this for you sushi lovers:
Southern California seaweed tests over 500 percent higher for radioactive iodine-131 than anywhere else in US
Thursday, July 12, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: seaweed, California, radiation
http://www.naturalnews.com/036449_seaweed_California_radiation.html
And this for you salmon lovers:
Salmon News: “We think something happened in the ocean.”
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/08/424670.shtml
Sockeye salmon at dire historic low on Canada’s Pacific coast — “We think something happened in the ocean” — “The elders have never seen anything like this at all” — Alaska and Russia also affected
Aboriginal people in British Columbia who rely on Skeena River sockeye are facing some extremely difficult decisions as sockeye salmon returns plunge to historic lows. Lake Babine Chief Wilf Adam was on his way to Smithers, B.C., on Monday for a discussion about whether to entirely shut down the food fishery on Lake Babine, something he said would be drastic and unprecedented.
Mel Kotyk, North Coast area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said department scientists don’t know why the return numbers are so low. “[…] we think something happened in the ocean.”
“We’ve never seen anything like this in all these years I’ve done this. I’ve asked the elders and they have never seen anything like this at all.” said Chief Wilf Adam
These stories were posted up on enenews. This suggests a possible explanation is radiation from Fukushima. That is speculation at this point. It could also be climate change related.
In 2011, Arnie Gundersen, nuclear expert from Fairewinds said this: “So eventually though we are going to see top of the food chain animals like tuna and salmon and things like that that have this process bio accumulates. The bigger fish gradually get higher and higher concentrations. And I am concerned that the FDA is not monitoring fish entering the United States because sooner or later a tuna is going to set off a radiation alarm at some part and people are going to think it’s a dirty bomb or something like that. So that’s not here yet because the tuna haven’t migrated across the Pacific. But I am thinking by 2013 we might see contamination of the water and of the top of the food chain fishes on the West Coast.”
!n July 2012 Gundersen said this: “The federal and even state agencies are not measuring this… I’ve been working on the West Coast and I’ve been trying to get the people of Oregon to demand of their state, the people of Alaska to demand of their state: Check the salmon, it is not difficult, it’s on the order of $500 a fish. Of course you don’t have to test every fish, but let’s test a couple and see. Either alleviate the fear or announce that yes indeed they are radioactive.”
For now I’m thinking the seafood flavored cat food’s still safe provided it comes in half-inch thick lead cans.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 
Youre thus cool! We dont assume Ive go through anything this way before. Therefore nice to get somebody with some original thoughts on this topic. realy thank you for beginning this up. this website is one thing that is needed on the web, someone after some originality. valuable job for taking something new to the internet!
Hi Lucas. Yep, if not new, at least unusual. gracias, J
Although radiation may be a factor, a far more likely cause of the demise of British Columbia’s wild salmon is the extensive fish farms they government is encouraging – and all the disease, parasites and environmental despoliation that goes with them.
Barbra and Jack Donachy: The supposition might be correct, or might be partially correct. Or it might have nothing at all to do with the phenomenon. The locals and their observations probably have some degree of validity unless there’s sound contrary evidence suggesting they’re wrong. The phrase, ‘a far more likely cause’ implies data has been accumulated, examined, tested, and formulated to establish degrees of likelihood. If such is the case I haven’t come across it. In which case, one unfounded supposition is probably as good as another when it comes to degrees of likelihood. Gracias, J
Thanks for the response, Jules. Regarding the negative impact on farmed salmon, the data has been collected, and interested readers can find a wealth of it with a few clicks on Google or any search engine. While ocean conditions do impact salmon return rates, the more serious long term threat to populations of wild salmon is environmental degradation in their river spawning grounds. In addition to breeding parasites and disease, salmon farms produce a product that is being sold cheaply, thus devaluing wild fish and the environs they depend on. In Norway, Scotland and British Columbia, in study after study salmon farms are being shown to negatively impact wild fish. This is not “unfounded supposition,” Jules, and you can read up on it for yourself if you care to.
Hi Barbra and Jack: I don’t doubt salmon farms have environmental spinoff negatives. I don’t have a dog in the fight over whether they’re also the cause of the Salmon News phenomenon, or whether it’s Japanese radiation, or both, or neither. Heck, maybe those salmon farms are the single cause of manmade climate change, for all I know.
It’s easy to imagine the Japanese nuke folks working three shifts to find explanations such as salmon farm pollution to point fingers of blame toward whenever anything happens that might be a consequence of the radiation they’re pouring into the sea. Manufacturing evidence is well within their means. similarly, the wild salmon fishing industry might be happy to blame it on farm fed salmon.
Finding the right focal points for praise, blame and belief can be easy for those who trust, or for those who have a vested interest in one cause over another.
Gracias, J