Sushi chef, restaurant charged with serving endangered whale

Reuters ^ | 3/11/2010 | Unattributed

[mojito]

A California sushi chef and the restaurant in which he worked have been charged with illegally serving meat from an endangered Sei whale, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, and the parent company of the popular restaurant The Hump in Santa Monica were charged late on Wednesday with violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act which makes it illegal to sell any kind of whale meat.

The case stemmed from informants who ordered whale meat at the restaurant in October 2009 and evolved into a sting operation by U.S. wildlife and customs officials who observed whale meat being served at the restaurant last week.

[WayneS]

Hey! You got your whale innards all over my motor scooter!

[verity]

Hilarious quips.

[WayneS]

But, but, but... whale oil doesn’t contain trans-fats, does it?

[Don W]

"Someone should not be able to walk into a restaurant and order a plate of an endangered species," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said in a statement.

Well, so much for those coho salmon specials at restaurants, I suppose...

Are we still going to be allowed to buy canned coho?

[Trust but Verify]

I heard it was a fluke.

[Rebelbase]

Yeah, my first thought too. I draw the line at cannibalism. Those chefs should be ashamed of themselves for doing that to unsuspecting patrons.

[PGR88]

“..The case stemmed from informants who ordered whale meat at the restaurant in October 2009 and evolved into a sting operation by U.S. wildlife and customs officials who observed whale meat being served at the restaurant last week..”

I could not care less

We have US Dept. of Interior cops now chasing sushi restaurants. And we wonder why our Gov’t costs $3.6 Trillion???

[BJClinton]

Did the informants eat the whale sushi?

[dancusa]

People’s Republic of Santa Monica of all places. LOL!

[Taft in '52]

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, the Prince of Whales

[Hillbillary]

If word of this gets out, the whales will have a lunch counter sit-in.

[Hawthorn]

>> Something’s fishy here. <<

Uh, last time I checked, a whale is not a fish.

[tubebender]

Was it Whale or was it Jonah...

[Cinnamon Girl]

That is totally gross.

[VanShuyten]

Actually, whale tastes similar to good beef. Ate some kujira sashimi about 30 years ago when I was in Japan. Mrs. VanShuyten, born in Japan, says they used to get whale for school lunch, although it was the canned stuff, and she didn't like it very much.

[JRios1968]

I don’t know, spotted owl tastes a little like bald eagle...

[green pastures]

“I heard it was a fluke.”

Not a chance. This incident was entirely orca-strated. Completely on porpoise...

[Tijeras_Slim]

Minke whales aren’t on the endangered list, and that’s almost all they take.

Endangered or not, you must still have a license for your minkey.

[at bay]

Sei, copper.

[smokingfrog]