IF JAPAN wins the right to resume whaling, the animals won’t be the only victims. Tests on whalemeat on sale there have revealed astonishing levels of mercury.
While it has long been known that the animals accumulate heavy metals such as mercury in their tissues, the levels discovered have surprised even the experts. Two of the 26 liver samples examined contained over 1970 micrograms of mercury per gram of liver. That’s nearly 5000 times the Japanese government’s limit for mercury contamination, 0.4 micrograms per gram.
At these concentrations, a 60-kilogram adult eating just 0.15 grams of liver would exceed the…
