page_title: Whale meat
hierarchical_section_title: Whale meat
caption_attribution_description: Whale meat at the Tsukiji fish market
context_page_description: Whale meat, broadly speaking, may include all cetaceans and all parts of the animal: muscle, organs, skin, and fat. There is relatively little demand for it, compared to farmed livestock, and commercial whaling, which has faced opposition for decades, continues today in very few countries, although whale meat used to be eaten across Western Europe and colonial America. However, wherever dolphin drive hunting and aboriginal whaling exist, marine mammals are eaten locally as part of the subsistence economy: in the Faroe Islands, in the circumpolar Arctic, other indigenous peoples of the United States, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in a couple of villages in Indonesia and in certain South Pacific islands.
  Like horse meat, for some cultures whale meat is taboo, or a food of last resort, e.g. in times of war, whereas in others it is a delicacy and a culinary centrepiece. Indigenous groups contend that whale meat represents their cultural survival. Its consumption has been denounced by detractors on wildlife conservation, toxicity, and animal rights grounds.
context_section_description: Whale meat, broadly speaking, may include all cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) and all parts of the animal: muscle (meat), organs (offal), skin (muktuk), and fat (blubber). There is relatively little demand for it, compared to farmed livestock, and commercial whaling, which has faced opposition for decades, continues today in very few countries (mainly Iceland, Japan, Norway), although whale meat used to be eaten across Western Europe and colonial America. However, wherever dolphin drive hunting and aboriginal whaling exist, marine mammals are eaten locally as part of the subsistence economy: in the Faroe Islands, in the circumpolar Arctic (the Inuit in Canada and Greenland, related peoples in Alaska, the Chukchi people of Siberia), other indigenous peoples of the United States (including the Makah people of the Pacific Northwest), in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (mainly on the island of Bequia), in a couple of villages in Indonesia and in certain South Pacific islands.
  Like horse meat, for some cultures whale meat is taboo, or a food of last resort, e.g. in times of war, whereas in others it is a delicacy and a culinary centrepiece. Indigenous groups contend that whale meat represents their cultural survival. Its consumption has been denounced by detractors on wildlife conservation, toxicity (especially mercury), and animal rights grounds. 
  Whale meat can be prepared in various ways, including salt-curing, which means that consumption is not necessarily restricted to coastal communities.
caption: Whale meat on sale at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo in 2008
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Exif_JPEG_PICTURE", "Image Make": "RICOH", "Image Model": "GR DIGITAL 2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2008:02:15 18:08:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "(C) by GR DIGITAL 2 User", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 20, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "612", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1438", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8181", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/64", "EXIF FNumber": "12/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:02:04 19:06:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:02:04 19:06:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "14/5", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5/2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "17/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "12/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "59/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1312", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}