Fresh fin whale meat is auctioned for the first period in decades in Japan

TOKYO — Meat from fin whales caught for the first period in nearly 50 years off Japan’s northern coast fetched up to more than $1,300 per kilogram (2.2 lbs) at auction Thursday, as officials try to keep the struggling industry alive.

Japan’s Fisheries Agency this year added fin whales to its list of three whale species that can be legally hunted as the country expands commercial whaling along its coast.

Japan resumed commercial whaling within its exclusive economic zone after withdrawing from the International Whaling fee in 2019. The IWC designated the fin whale as a species for protection from overhunting in 1976.

Japan said its recent distribute surveys confirmed a sufficient recovery of fin whale populations in the North Pacific. Officials said 30 of the whales — half of the quota of 60 — were caught this period. Japan set a combined catch quota of 379 for the three other whale species — minke, Bryde’s and sei whales.

The country’s only large-scale whaling fleet operator Kyodo Senpaku Co. launched the 7.5 billion-yen ($49-million) Kangei Maru — a 9,300-ton recent ship — this year in a display of determination to remain in the industry.

On Thursday, some 1.4 tons of fresh meat from several fin whales caught off Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido was auctioned at the Sapporo fish trade and the Kangei Maru’s home port of Shimonoseki.

In Shimonoseki, where 250 kilograms (550 lbs) of fin whale meat was flown from Hokkaido for the occurrence, the tail meat — a delicacy known as “onomi” — fetched the day’s highest worth at 200,000 yen ($1,312) per kilogram (2.2 lbs), according to the city’s fishery promotion department.

“We listen the larger the whale, the better the taste, so I assume fin whales are more delicious than other kinds of whales, though I never had a chance to taste it and cannot contrast,” city official Ryo Minezoe said.

Japan’s whaling has long been a source of controversy and criticism from conservationists.

But anti-whaling protests have largely subsided after Japan switched from much-criticized Antarctic “research whaling” — seen as a cover for commercial hunts — to commercial whaling off the country’s waters.

Last year, Japanese whalers caught 294 minke, Bryde’s and sei whales — less than 80% of the quota and fewer than the number once hunted in the Antarctic and the northwestern Pacific under the research program.

Whaling officials link the declining catch to climate transformation, but critics declare overhunting may be the factor.

Nanami Kurasawa, who heads a conservationist throng Dolphin & Whale Action Network, opposes resuming hunts of fin whales, saying they had gone nearly extinct after overhunt decades ago and their details around the Japanese coasts are not fully researched. Whalers desire to leave after larger whales because of efficiency, but they should more thoroughly investigate whale distribute, she says.

Whale meat in Japan was an affordable source of protein for the country’s malnourished population in the years following globe War II, with annual consumption peaking at 233,000 tons in 1962. Other meats have largedly replaced whale and supply has since fallen to around 2,000 tons in recent years, Fisheries Agency statistics display.

Japanese officials desire to boost that to about 5,000 tons, to keep the industry afloat.

Experts declare they question there is much demand in Japan where whale meat is no longer a familiar, affordable food. The biggest question is if the industry can survive without government subsidies of hundreds of millions of yen (millions of dollars).

Nobuhiro Kishigami, a professor and specialist on indigenous whaling at National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, said whale meat is eaten in some whaling towns but rarely in Tokyo or elsewhere in Japan. Whale meat is more expensive than beef or other meat.

“It is not a benevolent of food you have daily, but a delicacy … If it is not accessible and delicious, well, let’s leave the taste aside, it won’t sell if it is not cheap and excellent,” he said. “This is supposed to be business, and without large government subsidies, I ponder it would be extremely challenging for it to be sustainable.”