Whale Conservationists Squeeze Sushi Sales

Whale Conservationists Squeeze Sushi Sales



   
April 2007 - One of the largest U.S. 
suppliers of sushi seafood is drawing fire from conservation 
groups since it partnered with the leading Japanese whale meat 
trader to distribute the Japanese company's new frozen sushi 
product in the United States. 
True World Foods based in Elizabeth, New Jersey is being 
pressured to persuade its new business partner, the 
multinational seafood conglomerate Kyokuyo, to stop selling 
whale meat products. 
True World Foods will market Kyokuyo's frozen sushi under the 
brand name Polar Seas Frozen Sushi, but the company says it 
has made no plans to market whale meat. Japanese factory 
whaler takes a minke whale on board in the 
Southern Ocean. January 2006. 
In a new report, "Raw Deal," the Environmental Investigation 
Agency, EIA, a nonprofit group based in Washington and London, 
details Kyokuyo's decades-long involvement in hunting whales 
and its recent connection with True World Foods. 
"Through its sales of millions and millions of cans of whale 
meat in Japan each year, Kyokuyo is a driving force behind 
Japan's expanding commercial whaling industry," said EIA 
president Allan Thornton. 
"We appeal to True World Foods to use their influence to 
persuade Kyokuyo to immediately end their massive sale of 
whale meat and to uphold international laws that protect great 
whales from commercial hunting," he said Tuesday. 
Kyokuyo got its start in the 1930s as a whaling company 
operating in the Antarctic. Although it sold its stock in the 
government of Japan's whaling fleet last year, Kyokuyo has not 
cut its connections to the whaling industry but sells cans of 
Polar Seas brand whale meat and other whale products across 
Japan and on the Internet. 
"While Kyokuyo's recent divestment of shares means that it is 
no longer carrying out whaling, it continues to be the largest 
producer of canned whalemeat, and as such, plays a significant 
role in Japan's current whaling industry and future plans to 
expand it," the EIA report states. 
The Humane Society International and the International Fund 
for Animal Welfare, IFAW, have joined the EIA in calling on 
True World Foods to convince Kyokuyo to stop selling whale 
products. 
The groups are urging U.S. grocery stores to "think twice" 
before placing Polar Seas products on their shelves. The 
product could be in U.S. stores this summer. Polar Seas Frozen Sushi 
"No respectable business should want to be associated with the 
cruel and inhumane killing of one of the world's most 
magnificent animals," said Kitty Block, director of treaty 
law, oceans, and wildlife protection for Humane Society 
International. 
"With such a large presence in the United States where 
citizenvironment news are outraged by the wanton slaughter," 
she said, "it 
is incumbent upon True World Foods to convince Kyokuyo to get 
out of the whaling business now." 
True World Foods said today in a statement that the company is 
not directly involved in the whale meat trade. 
"We deeply respect the right of animal rights organizations to 
express their views and to take constructive action in support 
of their beliefs," said True World Foods CEO Takeshi Yashiro. 
"At the same time, the public should know that True World 
Foods has never, does not and never will sell, deal in or 
purchase whale meat. We are in the process of reminding all of 
our suppliers that we advocate humane fishing practices and we 
urge them all to support such practices worldwide." 
"Since we started up as a small business in Brooklyn, New 
York, 32 years ago, we have grown into being one of the 
leading suppliers of sushi-quality seafood to restaurants in 
this country," said Yashiro. "We are proud of our tradition of 
excellence and wish to retain our focus not on politics, but 
on environment newsuring that our customers can and will continue to 
receive seafood that tastes good, is safe to eat, and contains 
no whale meat." 
A poll conducted for the International Fund for Animal Welfare 
showed that 69 percent of Americans surveyed said they were 
willing to boycott a restaurant carrying products from a 
Japanese company involved in whaling, said Patrick Ramage, 
IFAW's global whale campaign manager. 
"Despite a global ban and global outrage, the government of 
Japan now hunts more than 1,200 whales each year," said 
Ramage. "U.S. shoppers will be shocked to know that by buying 
Polar Seas sushi, they are supporting Japan's deadly whale 
hunt." 
"Since the 1930s, Japanese hunters have killed more than half 
a million whales," the groups said in a statement. One of 
several brands of canned whale meat marketed by Kyokuyo "Kyokuyo
 has profited from the deaths of over 130,000 great 
whales, including more than 10,000 whales since the 
international ban on commercial whaling took effect in 1986," 
the EIA reports, based on figures gathered by the 
International Whaling Commission, IWC. 
The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling 
in 1986, but a provision in the IWC treaty that allows whaling 
for "scientific purposes" is utitilized by Japan to justify 
its "research" whaling program. More than 500 whales have been 
killed in Japan's hunt this year. 
In 1994, the IWC voted by a majority of 23 to 1 to designate 
the entire Southern Ocean as a whale sanctuary. In spite of 
almost universal support for the Southern Ocean Sanctuary 
within the IWC, Japan registered an objection to the 
designation regarding minke whales, while accepting that the 
designation applied to all other species of whales, including 
fin and humpback whales. 
Japan has announced that, in addition to the 1,200 minke 
whales and endangered fin whales it plans to hunt this year in 
the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, it will also kill up to 50 
humpback whales. The Southern Ocean population of these 
humpbacks is listed as Vulnerable to extinction by the 
IUCN-World Conservation Union. 
To view EIA's "Raw Deal" report click here. 

---