Friday, October 7, 2011
Since we watched The Cove, I've been really interested in dolphin meat. It has mecury in it, which is fatal to the human body. I started to do further research to figure out why there is mecury in dolphin meat even though the film gave a brief description on how it happens. According to "Animal Planet," dolphins are at the top of the food chain. Dolphins eat large fish, and they turn into small fish that feed on zooplanktons. Zooplanktons consume large amounts of algae and algae obtains mercury. As you go up the food chain, the mecuruy levels get higher and higher. The Japanese are just about the only country that consumes dolphin meat. They are opposed to eating it because there was an incident that happened in which many lives were affected by it, however they are trying to encorporate dolphin meat in the school systems to feed it to their children. The mecury is good for the dolphins in a way, but it is not for humans. It can result in, insanity, paralysis, comas and finally, death. This illness is labled as the "neurological illness." Pregnant women who consume more mecury than what they should have children who have implications with mental functions at an early age. I believe that this is no different from Americans and our obsession with cow meat. The next generation is growing up physically faster than they should. Scientists have done research and they have come up with the conclusion that the steroids that are put in the cows is the base of this problem. It is time we act on this!
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The fact that the Japanese government and the parents of these children are allowing the school systems to feed their children toxic animal meat is atrocious. I am very interested to know how they rationalize poisoning their youth. In my opinion that doesn't make any sense. Granted it doesn't look that hard to kill the dolphins, considering the fishermen's brutality in the killings. The fact that the fishermen laughed at the sight of bloody dolphins and shamelessly defended their acts makes me think that they genuinely aren't bothered by their jobs and it probably pays well. It seems that dolphin meat is most likely very cheap and easy to get, so it is possible the school systems are saving money by using this meat.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Japan's use of dolphin meat and America's use of cow meat is relatable. However, I think that the side effects caused by consuming each of these meats are vastly different. Dolphin meat causes insanity, paralysis, comas, mentally challenged children, and death. You say that you believe that is no different from Americans and our use of cow meat, which may cause kids to grow up physically faster than they should. What exactly does that mean? I imagine Robin Williams in the movie Jack. If it means our children may grow up to be freakishly tall and strong then yes, I think that is peculiar. In the future I will make sure that my kids eat organic meat with no additional hormones, like I always have. However, Japanese fishermen do not raise these wild dolphins like how American cattle farmers raise their cows. Farmers or meat producers in America have the choice of injecting their cattle with steroids. We as americans have the choice of whether to buy organic or non-organic meat. The Japanese people do not have that choice when it comes to dolphin meat. The fishermen do not have dolphin farms and they can't control what these dolphins are consuming, which happens to be a toxic amount of mercury. If parents care enough they could just give their children brown bagged lunches and avoid the whole situation altogether. I think the big issue is the Japanese government or whoever allows the distribution of dolphin meat to the public, while knowing exactly what the meat is doing to their future generations. Simply put, the distribution of dolphin meat should be outlawed and then the murder rate of dolphins will hopefully decline. Then the issue of dolphin shows can be dealt with.