A Santa Monica Restaurant Is Caught Using Whale Meat For Their Sushi

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I've never in my life ever had sushi, just don't like the idea of eating raw fish of any kind despite the claim that proper preparation kills any bacteria. Well I just heard this last night that many restaurants in general that serve sushi use, whale meat, that's right whale meat, and these whales are "harvested" in Japan. However, one Santa Monica restaurant called Hump, not only was making sushi out of whale meat, but using whale meat from the highly endangered Sei Whale from Japanese waters...there are only about 500 of these whales left in existence. How did they get caught? By none other than the film crew of the Academy Award winning documentary The Cove, that brought awareness of the Dolphin slaughter that goes on each year in Japan, and had used an undercover method of catching how the Sei Whale meat was being used for sushi Here's an excerpt from an article I found: [i]On Feb. 28, just a week before the filmmakers stood on the stage at the Oscars to accept their award, two animal activist associates wearing cameras and microphones sat down at the Hump and ordered a session of omakase, a sushi meal for which the chef picks all the dishes. Sure enough, the video clearly shows them being served thick, pink slices of meat — which the waitress unambiguously describes as "whale." After feigning interest and covertly stashing the meat in Ziploc bags, the activists walked out with their evidence. Samples were then sent to the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, confirming that the meat was indeed from a whale. Worse yet, DNA from the samples indicated more specifically that the animal was a Sei whale, an endangered species. "I’ve been doing this for years," said professor Scott Baker, who performed the tests. "I was pretty shocked."[/i] The article continues to say that one of the chefs is now charged with illegally serving this meat from an endangered species of whale and is to be fined $200,000 and can face at least a year in jail. What is with people though? Isn't having sushi made with non-endangered species of fish enough to satisfy people, without using ANY whale meat whether endangered or not? I don't know I just find this really sickening that people have to resort to using meats from endangered species of animals...and worse yet, the customers who eat such foods. Oh and don't get me going on the issue of shark fin soup that is a specialty in Japan, where the fins of sharks are cut off from LIVE sharks and the sharks left to die : http://green.yahoo.com/blog/guest_bloggers/25/cove-filmmakers-expose-l-a-restaurant-serving-whale-sushi-during-oscars.html http://green.yahoo.com/blog/guest_bloggers/25/cove-filmmakers-expose-l-a-restaurant-serving-whale-sushi-during-oscars.html