Whale Meat Sushi Got Restaurant in a Whale of Trouble

By Tiffany in Animals & Pets, Food & Drink, Politics on Mar 11, 2010 at 11:23 pm

Endangered Species, that’s what’s for dinner!

A trendy Santa Monica Sushi Restaurant, funnily enough named “Hump”, was caught selling whale.

The Hump came under fire after allegations surfaced in Tuesday’s New York Times that it had served meat from an endangered sei whale, possibly straight from the trunk of a white Mercedes-Benz.

To provide evidence, federal agents and animal activists had cooperated in a video sting orchestrated by the associate producer of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove.” …

Teglas said they enlisted two female animal activists — both vegans — and used a tiny video camera to record them as they were served a $600 omakase, or chef’s choice, meal at the Hump. The two activists asked whether they could get whale meat, and a waitress then served eight pieces of what she called “whale,” according to an affidavit provided by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

The activists bagged samples of the meat and slipped them into a purse. The samples were sent to Scott Baker, associate director of the highly regarded Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University. Baker determined that the meat was sei whale.

Link (Photo: Al Seib / LA Times)


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  1. Juice
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 3:04 am

    Screw you whare and dawrphin!!

  2. Ilan Ben Menachem
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 8:06 am

    The activists bagged samples of the meat and slipped them into a purse. The samples were sent to Scott Baker, associate director of the highly regarded Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University. Baker determined that the meat was sei whale.

  3. Sue Dunham
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 8:41 am

    Considering that restaurants routinely lie about the quality of fish they serve, I’d like to see a proper DNA test of the “whale” meat.

  4. Geekazoid
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 9:09 am

    Sounds tasty!

  5. felixthecat
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 9:36 am

    Whale meat is actually quite delicious, which explains why the Japanese and the Norwegians annually harvest thousands for research purposes.

  6. GailW
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 10:22 am

    WAS IT AT LEAST DELICIOUS?

  7. namowal
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Never been to “The Hump” but I have been to it’s sister restaurant “Typhoon,” (downstairs, same owner) which is infamous for offering insects on the menu. Unlike the whale meat, the crickets and water bugs were obtained legally.

  8. people
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    I’m from one of the few whale hunting nations in the world and I can verify that whale meat is quite tasty. It’s nothing worth driving a species to extinction over either so personally I believe my countrymen should give it up.
    I also personally believe we should limit our meat intake to 1-2 meat portions per week and ensure that the animal was killed humanely and lived under cruelty-free living conditions.

    Having said that, I do worry about the motives of people like the makers of The Cove and some Animal Rescue groups (who routinely complain about horses being sold to meat production).
    This is because you can’t send a vegan to preach about responsible meat consumption anymore than you can have the pope preaching about sexual behavior (gay marriage, condoms, etc.).
    A vegan on the missionary trail (as opposed to vegans who don’t feel the need to preach) will always have that as his/her ultimate purpose to convince you to give up meat entirely.

  9. gryt
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    Some asshole wants the “thrill” (bitch, please) of eating something exotic – forbidden even!!! Oooh how exciting!! At the expense of a whole species, that’s risking extinction? I hope they burn in hell.

  10. Frau
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    I fancy some Felix Gum right about now.

  11. Kalel
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    Serving whale meat? Must have been some kind of fluke.

  12. Carolyn
    Mar 12th, 2010 at 10:02 pm

    @Sue: The summary doesn’t include this, but Scott Baker did use DNA sequence data to ID the meat as Sei whale. He’s been involved in many years of work to ID whale in Japanese fish markets, and has a lot of experience with DNA-based identification.

  13. ted
    Mar 13th, 2010 at 9:23 pm

    I thought for a whale DNA test, he’d need a sperm sample.

  14. Ilan Ben Menachem
    Mar 18th, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    really sound…..Sounds tasty tasty…

  15. Carolyn
    Mar 25th, 2010 at 2:07 am

    @ted: No need for a Sperm sample; that’s not Right…


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