His research reveals how whales change their diets, and may even change their migrations and shift to new habitats because of changes in water temperature and the availability of fish they feed on.
“Whales are a gift of nature and have been an important part of the Norwegian diet for many years,” says first-class chef Lars Helge Hansen in Funen.
Tomiji Saito is the Representative Director of the Ayukawa Town Planning Association, which operates Whale Town Oshika. He was born in Ayukawahama, where he still lives and works today. In July 2020, two momentous events converged to highlight the whaling history of the tiny coastal community of Ayukawa that sitsContinue Reading
Hiroshi Katsumata was born in 1962 in Kamogawa City in Chiba Prefecture. He began working at Kamogawa Sea World in 1987, and became Director of Zoological Operations in 2016. He is a former rugby player. Kamogawa Sea World is now celebrating its 50th anniversary. The venue located in Kamogawa inContinue Reading
Jay Alabaster is a Ph.D. student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Arizona State University. He currently lives in Taiji, Japan, where he is working on a book and his dissertation. You can find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/alabasterjay. His email is jay.alabaster(at)asu.edu. It’s September again! Perched onContinue Reading
This is the second of a two-part series on the history of Japanese whaling. Part 1: The Birth of Traditional Whaling in Japan Shigeo Nakazono is a scholar and author engaged in the research of cultural assets and sociology, and curator of the Ikitsuki Island Museum (Shima no Yakata) inContinue Reading
This is the first of a two-part series on the history of Japanese whaling. Part 2: Transition to a Modern Whaling Nation Shigeo Nakazono is a scholar and author engaged in the research of cultural assets and sociology, and curator of the Ikitsuki Island Museum (Shima no Yakata) in Hirado,Continue Reading
I have sided with China and North Korea in the past. I was staying at the Friendship Hotel when I taught in Beijing, then suffering from the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I heard that their restaurant was going to serve dog meat. As I went to look atContinue Reading
In the interview, Dr. Ohsumi emphasized that “sustainable whaling” with responsible human management of the whale resources is the ideal option, if one considers the overall issues in the global environment. Discussing Japan’s withdrawal from the IWC, he elaborated on the organization’s future
I still remember the taste of hard-to-swallow fried whale meat served in Japanese school lunches. I have no nostalgia for it, but when I come across news that “Japan is doing it again” — committing supposed whale-hunting atrocities — the taste comes back.
