Taking surreptitious samples from sushi restaurants and supermarket freezers, two sleuthing New Zealand scientists have uncovered strong evidence of an international black market in whale meat in Japan and South Korea.
Tests conducted by the Auckland University researchers revealed that a wide variety of whale meat is still on sale, despite a 12-year-old international moratorium on whale hunting.A piece of meat from a Japanese fish market, for example, was found to be from a type of humpback whale found only in Mexican coastal waters.
"How can a Mexican whale turn up on a Japanese dinner plate? There is no evidence Mexican whales ever migrate into Japanese waters," said one of the scientists, Gina Lento.
The scientists also found southern hemisphere sei whale, Bryde's whale, North Pacific minke, fin and blue whale meat on sale in Japanese markets, up to 30 years after they were protected from hunting.
Japan is the only country exempted from the 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium on whale hunting but is restricted to hunting only for research. Meat from the whales killed for this purpose often is sold at fish markets, however.
Norway also holds an annual hunt, in defiance of the moratorium.
South Korea has no research hunting permits, and whale meat can be sold legally in markets only if caught accidentally on the coast along with legal fish.
The scientists' work bolsters claims by conservation groups, independent researchers and some governments that there is a growing international trade in illegal whale meat.
Their report, delivered to the Whaling Commission's scientific committee last week, will go to the full commission in Oman this week.
The report says there is a "surprising diversity" of whale meat in commercial markets, some of which is of questionable legality.
"The evidence is strongly circumstantial at present, the smoking gun, if you will," Lento said. "We are moving toward a forensic approach that will provide the bullet in the body and the hand that pulled the trigger."