'Toxic' whale meat eaters protest

Furious debate over whaling quotas are set to erupt on May 20 when delegates gather for the annual IWC meeting

TOKYO, Japan -- The debate over whaling is raging in Japan in the lead up to the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting later this month.

Crowds keen to see the resumption of commercial whaling marched through Tokyo on Thursday to urge the IWC to lift its moratorium on hunting.

As the pro-whaling lobby turns up the heat, scientists announced that whale meat could in fact be a health hazard.

This message could drive Japan's picky consumers away from whale meat and be more damaging to any hopes of resuming commercial whaling than years of campaigning by environmentalists.

"If it became more widely known that this meat was contaminated, people who want to eat whale would probably stop," Koichi Haraguchi, a researcher at Dai-Ichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences told Reuters.

"And people who think about trying it, wouldn't." he reiterated

The IWC's closed-door scientific committee began deliberating in late April on global whale populations at the former whaling port of Shimonoseki.

Yet it is the vote-tallying main session starting May 20 that is likely to spark controversy.

Already 18 IWC members including noted anti-whaling nations such as Australia, Britain and the U.S. have issued a statement saying they strongly rejected Japan's plans and urging it to hold back.

The research findings over health did not stop the pro-whalers marching through the streets near Tokyo's government district on Thursday

Carrying balloons and banners reading: "Resume Whaling! Fight on, Japan," the crowd numbered some 600, said organizers, including some women in traditional kimonos.

"We'll eat whale! We'll eat whale!" some shouted as they walked behind a giant black whale balloon.

Whale burgers contaminated

Experts say, whale meat may be tainted with mercury, cancer-causing dioxins, or polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as industrial chemicals linked to developmental delays -- all of which accumulate in human fatty tissue.

Yet so far, ignorance appears to be bliss, false labeling means not all the products for sale are guaranteed to be genuine -- and expensive -- minke whale meat, which is less likely to be contaminated.

Anti-whaling campaigners protested when Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited New Zealand

"Whales are at the top of the food pyramid, so that any pollutants in the oceans concentrate in their bodies," Yoko Tomiyama, chairwoman of the Consumers Union of Japan told Reuters.

"It is the duty of the government to tell people about this."

Prompted in part by such concerns, the Japanese Health Ministry has just completed its first-ever tests of whale meat, with a report due out shortly.

Japan's consumers have had their trust in food safety battered by a recent rash of scandals involving mislabeled beef, pork and poultry and by an outbreak of mad cow disease last year, it maybe unlikely to tolerate one on whale meat.

Heated debate

The IWC meeting moves into high gear from May 20 with a week of plenary sessions in which a vote on the whaling issue, and debate over Japan's expanded hunt for the next season, are expected.

Despite Japan's fervor, chances of lifting the moratorium this year are slim, since a three-quarters majority of the 43 IWC members would have to vote in favor for that to happen.

But the distance between the two sides has gradually narrowed, and Japanese officials say they hope to gain a simple majority, which they say would be a significant, albeit symbolic, step forward.

Japanese officials blame whales for falling fish catches, saying the mammoth mammals consume such vast amounts of fish that they have contributed to a drop in Japanese fish landings by half, to six million tonnes, in the last 20 years.

This has sparked stark portrayals by pro-whaling groups of whales pitted against humans for cherished, and dwindling, fish in one of the world's largest fish-eating nations.

Japan gave up commercial whaling in compliance with an international moratorium in 1986, but has engaged in research whaling since 1987 on the grounds that such research is permitted under an international treaty.