Pork Chop as a Whale Dish? Complexities of the global food chain...

white-sided dolphin hunt in the Faroe Islands

A recent report is querying whether Iceland is exporting ground up whale meat for use as a deitary protein supplement for livestock in Europe. Cows are herbivores by nature, but it doesn't mean you can't slip other things into their feed, making the whole issue of trophic food webs that much more complex...

Most countries now do not support commercial whaling, with Iceland, Norway and Japan being notable and controversial exceptions. This is especially true for Japan and their whale hunt that continues to draw aggressive protests and lots of media attention. The recent movie The Cove has highlighted the dolphin hunt in a small fishing village in Japan, raising the ire not only of animal advocates but health ones as well; considering the high levels of mercury found in their meat, many think eating whale simply doesn't make nutritional sense.

And perhaps not good culinary and business sense either, as owners of the California sushi restaurant, The Hump, recently found out when they were busted for illegally serving whale.

AY