‘Serious threat to human health’: Online Japanese meat has mercury levels 265 times above limit

Main: The Taiji dolphin hunts. Inset: The whale and dolphin meat which was tested. [ROBERT GILHOOLY, ACTION FOR DOLPHINS]

Testing of dolphin meat available for purchase from a website in Japan has found it contains mercury levels 265 times the country’s regulatory limit.

Test results from a Japanese lab found Risso's dolphin offal has mercury levels of 106 parts per million of mercury and 1.7 parts per million of methyl mercury — 265 times the 0.4 parts per million regulatory limit in Japan.

Not-for-profit Action for Dolphins conducted the tests as part of its campaign to end the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.

The meat was purchased from the Taiji Fisheries Association website and is available throughout Japan.

Additional test results include finding 6.40 parts per million mercury and 2.2 parts per million methylmercury in melon-headed whale meat, some 16 times the limit of total mercury.

"We have conducted multiple mercury tests in Japan since 2020, but these are the highest mercury results we have ever seen,” said Hannah Tait, CEO, Action for Dolphins.

“Especially if consumed frequently, this meat poses a serious threat to human health and should be removed from sale."

In August 2021, Action for Dolphins filed a criminal complaint against the Taiji Fisheries Association for selling dolphin meat with mercury levels above the regulatory limit.

Following a police investigation, the Wakayama prosecutors' office decided not to indict the Taiji Fisheries Association. In August this year Action for Dolphins appealed this decision.

The appeal committee has since upheld the original decision, claiming the mercury guidelines do not apply to cetaceans.

Kyoko Yoshida, the lead attorney on the appeal from the Law Office of Takano Takashi, said, "I believe this judgment is ridiculous.

“The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is aware of the danger of mercury in whale meat, so they warn pregnant women to avoid consuming large amounts of whale meat.”

In its guidelines, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor advises that fish and seafood with levels exceeding 0.4 parts per million for total mercury and 0.3 parts per million for methylmercury are unsafe for human consumption, said a statement from Action for Dolphins.

For decades, researchers in Japan have highlighted the risks of consuming red meat from cetaceans such as whales and dolphins, warning it could pose health problems for not only pregnant women but for the general population and lead to chronic health impacts, the charity said.

Action for Dolphins said that on Oct. 27 a pod of Risso's dolphins were slaughtered in the Taiji killed cove, and on Oct. 29 a pod of melon-headed whales were killed.

BY TREVOR TREHARNE [trevor.treharne@joongang.co.kr]