Nobody Wants to Eat Whale Meat Anymore

In the weekend WSJ, there was a story that was short but sweet. It was about the challenges facing the whaling industry. Next week there will be a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Anchorage. But interest in their products seems to be fading away, moratorium or not.

It’s just that whale watching has become such a big business, and not as many people want to eat whale as in the past. I can vouch for that–we ate some slivers of whale on a few occasions when Paul Shoul and I were visiting Greenland. Boy was it terrible. Hard to chew, blubbery, and just plain awful. Our hosts of course were pretty gung ho about the meat, though they reserved their most lavish praise for the blood red seal meat.

The article states, “Japan’s whale meat reserves grew by one quarter last year, while fishermen in Iceland are struggling to sell the whales that they caught last year, in defiance of the moratorium. Meanwhile, whale-watching has turned into a thriving business.”