Anyone Want a Whale Burger?

G

Gemtun

Guest
This upsets me a great deal, me being a whale lover and see a huge need to preserve whale breeds :squint:


Whale burger on menu at fast food chain


TOKYO (Reuters) - With Japan under fire for plans to expand its whaling program, a fast food chain is offering a new product aimed at using up stocks from past hunts -- whale burger.

The 380 yen ($3.50) slice of fried minke whale in a bun went on sale Thursday at Lucky Pierrot, a restaurant chain in the port city of Hakodate on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.

"The taste and texture are somewhere between beef and fish," said Lucky Pierrot manager Miku Oh. "People in Hakodate have a long history of eating whale, so customers are looking forward to trying it."

Japan's plan to expand its scientific whale hunt to an annual catch of 900 minke whales were dealt a blow Wednesday when the International Whaling Commission passed a resolution at a meeting in South Korea urging it to instead cut back on the catch.

"We are not going out to catch whales because we want to eat them, we are just using up meat from whales that have been killed for experiments," Oh said.

Asked about customers' reaction to the whale burgers, a worker at one of the restaurants said: "We get a lot of tourists here and even children who had never eaten it before said it was good. The grown-ups said the flavor made them nostalgic."

Whale meat was a staple of school lunches in Japan before a moratorium on whaling was introduced in 1986. ($1-108.78 Yen)
 
Oh geez! You literally meant a WHALE burger?! :eek:

I can see why it upset you! It would have bothered me as well. I thought when I first glanced at this, it was another fast food gimmick like one of the restaurants marking a gigantic hamburger and calling it a "whale burger", kinda like a play on words, but I can see that it's not.

This makes me sad that whales are being slaughtered senslessly like that. I'm not exactly an animal rights activist, and I believe in hunting animals for food, but within reason!

This is sick!
 
Last edited:
Not too suprised about it. Japan eat soooo many different kinds of food that we never seen before that US don't even have. Here in Washington state at Neah Bay, indian tribes hunt ONE whale per year for their traditation, yes they still do that today with their old fashioned ways.
 
when do they (the indian tribes @ neah bay) usually go out to hunt the whale? can it be watched by people?
 
I never heard that before about whale burger. Have you ate whale burger, Meg?? Is it a good food or what??? I never try to eat it before but it is very interested to me. I just a curious.
 
Yukoneer said:
when do they (the indian tribes @ neah bay) usually go out to hunt the whale? can it be watched by people?
Click to expand...

They hunt out miles from shore and I don't know about being watched by people. They usually do it in the summer months, I think.
 
and I believe in hunting animals for food, but within reason!
Click to expand...
Actually if I recall correctly, they cannot go out and kill a random whale. I think off the top of my head, the whale has to be a species that isn't endangered. Minke whales are not endangered, but sperm whales are. There are some whale species that are endangered and some that aren't, just as there are some bird species which are endangered and some that aren't.
 
deafdyke said:
Actually if I recall correctly, they cannot go out and kill a random whale. I think off the top of my head, the whale has to be a species that isn't endangered. Minke whales are not endangered, but sperm whales are. There are some whale species that are endangered and some that aren't, just as there are some bird species which are endangered and some that aren't.
Click to expand...

Which is why I said within reason. I admit that I don't have much knowledge when it comes to the endangered species act in this country. Therefore, I am going what sounds right to me, and harvesting whale meat for food doesn't sound right to me. It just doesn't. I know that people do it, and I don't think I have the right to tell someone what to do or what not to do, but I just know that I certainly wouldn't do this!
 
Whale bacon is offered at a Korean buffeteria in Garden Grove.

Richard
 
eww - but gotta look at it this way, cultures have different ideas of what is preferred. nothing bad or good about that.... only it's bad that the whales are more valuable than being canned tuna, and they are not as plentiful as tuna.

hubby once had whale meat, and he said it was very oily!
 
Well what if a whale died accidently and the people used the body instead of outright/deliberatly killing it?
 
deafdyke said:
Well what if a whale died accidently and the people used the body instead of outright/deliberatly killing it?
Click to expand...

Waste not, want not :) Or however that saying goes!
 
I don't have a problem with that if the whales are not endangered.

My ancestors were New England whalers, and I grew up in a historic whaling area, so I guess I have a different perspective on whaling.
 
Liza said:
eww - but gotta look at it this way, cultures have different ideas of what is preferred. nothing bad or good about that.... only it's bad that the whales are more valuable than being canned tuna, and they are not as plentiful as tuna.

hubby once had whale meat, and he said it was very oily!
Click to expand...

This is true, Liza. Different cultures do things we Americans (and probably Norwegians, too ;) ) would never conceive of. I just have a hard time with the idea of killing whales for sport. It makes me squeamish!
 
Well, the article DID say they were using the meat of whales used in scientific experiments only.
 
Back
Top