The makers of the documentary The Cove took their time in Los Angeles for the Oscars to do a little covert investigation into a popular sushi restaurant at the Santa Monica airport last week. The eatery called The Hump, the film makers were told, was serving whale meat sushi. While popular in Japan, the sale of sea mammals is illegal in the US. Donned with their James Bond style cameras and microphones, they discovered not only were they selling whale meat (at a hefty price of $600 a serving) they found after sending samples off for testing that the meat was of the endangered Sei Whale. The tests were performed at the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University.
The Sei Whale, on the protected Endangered Species list, is the third largest whale in the world reaching a whopping 66 feet long and weighing in at a hefty 45 tons. The Sei’s population has dwindled to roughly 54,000 as of 2006 as commercial whaling has virtually decimated the population.
It’s bad enough they’re selling whale. But to offer an endangered species for human consumption is atrocious. Even worse is the penalty for serving up an endangered species is a mere $20,000 and a year in prison. An official investigation is underway and the property The Hump resides upon is owned by the city of Santa Monica. I say the fines should be multiplied by 10 and awarded to protecting the worlds largest and most docile of creatures, the whales.
