whaling and dioxin

["Jon Campbell" <jon@cqs.com>]

Hi, folks,

     This is a little off-topic for this list, but I thought I would pass it
on, since it is connected with dioxins in food. The Russians have started
commercial whaling again, and they are selling Beluga whales to Japan.

      This is indeed alarming. Meanwhile, there is a dioxin *frenzy* that
has gripped Japan because of all of their incinerators, and govt regulations
have become more strict on dioxin contamination in foodstuffs.

      Somehow they
have not put two and two together. Beluga whales are incredibly contaminated
with dioxin and PCBs. If the Japanese people were informed that whales are
dioxin-contaminated, Japanese whaling would probably stop - forever - and
Japan would not be a "market" for the Russian whalers.

       If anyone has any connections to the Japanese press or Japanese NGOs,
PLEASE get this word out. The dioxin contamination of whales and other sea
mammals is well documented (since they consume fish and other sea creatures
for the entirety of their diets they are at the very top of the food chain).
I seem to recall that when the Swedish govt did a dioxin analysis on a
beached whale they found dioxins in the 10s or 100s ppt teq.

Thanks
Jon Campbell
----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Hunt <dhunt@center1.com>
To: Citnet <citnet-list@citnet.org>; Environment Action
<environment_action.topic@ecunet.org>; Env-L <ENVIRONMENT-L@cornell.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 1999 12:53 PM
Subject: [Fwd: Russians Killing Whales]


> >From the WWF Conservation Action Network:
>
> We urgently need your help.  This week, Russian boats will unload on
> Japanese docks the harvest of 36 beluga whales, a small white
> cetacean closely related to dolphins and porpoises.  Russia's hunt is an
> alarming precedent-their first commercial hunt of belugas in 35
> years.  The purchase of the meat by Japan is equally troubling as the
> first step toward an international trade in the meat of small cetaceans,
> which currently lack adequate international protections.  Please send
> free messages to U.S. Vice President Al Gore, asking that the United
> States lodge a protest, and to Russian and Japanese officials to
> complain about the beluga hunt and the sale.
>
> To take action, go to http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org and click on
> "Your Personal Action Center."  To send messages to all the targets,
> you will need to click on two items in your "Action To Do" list:
> "Protest Whale Kills" and "Stop Whale Killing."  Please take both
> actions as soon as possible.
>
> If you receive an e-mail back from Vice President Gore saying there
> was a problem with the delivery of your message, please forward
> Gore's e-mail text to us at undeliverable@worldwildlife.org.
>
> Thanks for helping to save our living planet.
>