Community | March 15, 2010 | 4 comments

Trendy Santa Monica Restaurant "Apologizes" for Serving Whale Meat

source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/15/california.whale.meat.apology/index.html?hpt=T2

Image
EthicalVegan
March 15, 2010 6:18 p.m. EDT

A trendy California sushi restaurant charged by federal authorities with serving whale meet offered an apology Monday, saying it "ignored its responsibilities" to endangered species.

Prosecutors charged Typhoon Restaurant Inc., the parent company of Santa Monica's The Hump, and chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, with the illegal sale of a marine mammal product for an unauthorized purpose.

Although it is considered a delicacy in Japan and some other countries, meat from whales -- an endangered species -- is illegal to consume in the United States.

"We write to address the misdemeanor charge recently filed by the U.S. attorney," the restaurant said in a statement posted on its Web site.

"The charge against the restaurant is true: The Hump served whale meat to customers looking to eat what in Japan is widely served as a delicacy," the statement continued. "In serving this meat, The Hump ignored its responsibilities to help save endangered whales from extinction and failed to support the world community in its uphill fight to protect all endangered species."

The restaurant pledged to set up procedures to ensure that it complies with laws and "becomes a good corporate citizen."

"We sincerely apologize. We pledge to work hard to re-earn the trust of the public and respect of our customers."


The misdemeanor charge carries a federal prison sentence of up to a year and a fine of up to $200,000 for the company, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

The law firm for the restaurant and its parent company deferred questions to The Hump's Web site. However, Typhoon attorney Gary Lincenberg has said the restaurant accepts responsibility for serving whale and will agree to pay a fine, CNN affiliate KTLA reported.

The investigation into the restaurant began in October, when two members of the team that made the documentary "The Cove" visited The Hump, officials said.

"The Cove," which exposes the annual killing of dolphins at a Japanese fishing village, won the Academy Award for best documentary this month.

The restaurant, located at the Santa Monica Airport, is known for its exotic fare. Its Web site asks diners to surrender themselves to its chefs for "a culinary adventure ... unlike any that you have previously experienced."

Armed with a hidden camera, the two women captured the waitress serving them whale and horse meat and identifying them as such, a federal criminal complaint said. A receipt from the restaurant at the end of the meal identified their selection as "whale" and "horse" with the cost -- $85 -- written next to them.

The women snuck pieces of the meat into a napkin and later sent them for examination to a researcher at Oregon State University. He identified the whale sample to be that of sei whale, prosecutors said.

The sei is found throughout the world's oceans. Whalers began to hunt them after the populations of right, humpback, blue and fin whales declined due to overfishing. It is now considered an endangered species.

In February and March, the activists returned and again asked for -- and were served -- whale meat, the criminal complaint said.

A DNA test of the meat smuggled out after the February visit confirmed it to be meat from the sei whale, Mrozek said.

During a final visit in March, officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed the activists asking for "kujira," or whale meat.

One of the officers then saw the sushi chef leave the restaurant and return with a wrapped package that he seemed to have retrieved from a parked Mercedes, the complaint said.

The chef told a customer it was whale meat, the document said. Next, officials raided the restaurant, and chef Yamamoto admitted that he had served whale meat, the complaint said.

"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.

Conservation agencies are engaged in an ongoing feud with Japan over whaling.

In the early 1980s, the International Whaling Commission determined that there should be a moratorium on commercial whale hunting. However, whaling is allowed under international law when done for scientific reasons, which Japan cites as the legal basis for its hunts.

The country's annual hunt kills up to 1,000 whales. Many in the international community believe that such hunts amount to needless slaughter.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Film,   Webmash,   Humanism,   6 more
  2. tags:
    Japan,  Animal Protection,  animal cruelty,  Whales,  23 more
  3.     
    |

4 comments // Trendy Santa Monica Restaurant "Apologizes" for Serving Whale Meat

  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-us-whale-sushi-sting,0,211...

      Feds charge sushi chef, Calif. restaurant with serving illegal whale to activists in sting op

      RAQUEL MARIA DILLON Associated Press Writer

      March 11, 2010 | 3:40 a.m.

      LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a sushi chef and a Santa Monica restaurant on allegations that they served illegal and endangered whale meat.

      Typhoon Restaurant Inc., which owns The Hump restaurant, and sushi chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, were charged with illegally selling an endangered species product, a misdemeanor.

      According to a search warrant, marine mammal activists were served whale during three separate visits to the restaurant. Federal labs confirmed the meat came from a Sei whale, an endangered species protected by international treaties, documents said.

      Agents also seized some suspected whale meat during a search of the restaurant Friday but are awaiting test results to confirm it was Sei whale, U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozak said.

      In October, two activists posing as customers went to The Hump and ordered "omakase," which means they let the chef choose the choicest fresh fish. They also requested whale and pocketed a sample.

      The young women worked with Louie Psihoyos, director of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," to record the meal with a hidden camera and microphone.

      "These are endangered animals being cut up for dinner," Psihoyos said. "It's an abuse of science."

      Psihoyos took their findings to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which started an investigation.

      Activists claim the whale meat came from Japan's scientific whaling program and was illegally exported, but the U.S. attorney's office is still investigating the source of the meat.

      Japan kills hundreds of whales in Antarctic waters each year under its research whaling program, which has triggered violent protests by conservationists and caused strong objections by diplomats in recent years.

      An attorney for Typhoon, Gary Lincenberg, said the restaurant accepts responsibility for serving whale and will agree to pay a fine. If convicted, the company could be fined up to $200,000.

      Court records say agents interviewed Yamamoto, a Culver City resident and a chef at The Hump for the past seven years, and he admitted serving whale to two young women.

      Yamamoto's attorney, Mark Byrne, declined to comment on the charges, saying he hadn't had time to review them. If convicted, Yamamoto could face a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

      During the October restaurant visit, animal rights activist Crystal Galbraith, 27, and a friend who spoke fluent Japanese racked up a bill of $600, feasting on increasingly exotic dishes to gain the confidence of the waiters and chef.

      "It was heartbreaking to eat an endangered animal, but I knew that I was doing it to save" the whales, said Galbraith, a vegan. "We were there eating for four hours. I felt so full and sick."

      The waitress brought out a dish of whale sushi, identifying the whale in English and Japanese, court documents said. The dish was listed as whale on the check and cost $85.

      The team sent samples to Scott Baker, a professor and cetacean specialist at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, for genetic testing. The results showed the meat was from a Sei whale, court records said.

      The Sei whale is a baleen whale found throughout the world's oceans, and known for its graceful and quick swimming and its long, low vocalizations, Baker said. Fully grown, the mammal is longer than a bus.

      Eating Sei whale meat is common in Japan, Korea and Norway and among native peoples in Alaska and Canada, but it is illegal to export the meat because of the Sei whale's endangered status.

      In late February, when Psihoyos and the rest of his team were in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards, Galbraith and another friend returned to The Hump twice more.

      This time, agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sat at the bar and watched Yamamoto at work, court records said. During the third visit, another agent watched the chef go to his car and retrieve a package wrapped in clear plastic.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-whale11-2010mar11,0,7727600...

      Editorial - The Los Angeles Times

      Whale -- it shouldn't be for dinner

      The Hump, a Santa Monica sushi joint, allegedly served meat of the sei whale to makers of 'The Cove.'

      March 11, 2010

      Whale -- It Shouldn't Be for Dinner

      When sea-urchin gonads become boring, jaded palates yearn for something more exotic -- such as the $60 morsels of endangered whale allegedly served up at a pricey Santa Monica sushi joint last week.

      If The Hump restaurant wasn't world famous before its run-in with Oscar-winning filmmakers, it's having trouble avoiding the spotlight after the New York Times reported on the investigative exploits of the team that made "The Cove," a documentary about the annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins by a Japanese village. After receiving a tip, the film's associate director helped organize an undercover video operation, with animal activists playing diners. According to an affidavit by an agent with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the activists slipped the meat into plastic bags and shipped it to a marine mammalogist, who confirmed that the flesh was that of the endangered sei whale, a leviathan that grows to about 50 feet in length. Federal agents joined the team last week, when the filmmakers were in town for the Academy Awards, for another visit to the restaurant during which whale meat was ordered -- and allegedly served. The restaurant apparently didn't bother with code words, either. On both occasions, the server wrote "whale" on the receipt, according to the affidavit.

      In ways, the makers of "The Cove" have delivered a uniquely Southern California script, set in a seaside town known for its social consciousness. The plot even includes mysterious allusions to a white Mercedes parked in back of the restaurant from which the alleged whale meat might have come.

      Too bad the filmmakers didn't catch any purchasers of whale meat in their micro-documentary. But though it tells us a little bit about decadence in the L.A. area, it actually reveals far more about Japan -- which almost certainly would have been the source of any whale meat -- and the license it has been given to kill large numbers of marine mammals. Despite the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling, Japan continues to hunt whales under the cloak of permitted "scientific research," though evidence has emerged over the years that the meat is used commercially in that country. It is the world's failure to stop this charade that brought the butchered flesh of an endangered animal to our shore.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
more from Community:
from the community

top videos