Care for a Whale Meat Burger with Extra Mercury?

Fast food burgers get a lot of flack from health advocates for their high amount of calories and dubious ingredients. But there's a decidedly more uncommon burger that's been flying — er, swimming — under health activists' radars.

Until now, that is. Anti-whaling activists are attempting to highlight the dangers of whale burgers. Whale meat often contains high levels of mercury, so groups like the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society are lobbying the World Health Organization (WHO) to set global consumption guidelines for the meat. Currently, the WHO includes mercury on its list of the top 10 chemicals that rank as a major public health concern. Campaigners hope that by petitioning the WHO to set guidelines on whale meat consumption, it will highlight the risks associated with eating this meat and in turn, curb whaling.

Mammals like pilot whales and tooth whales — both species that some cultures consume — do indeed contain concerning levels of mercury. These species of whales sit near the top of the food chain, which means they tend to carry more mercury than other fish in the sea. While heavy metals aren't good for whales, they're not good for consumers, either. Eating food with high amounts of mercury can cause numbness, fatigue, and blurred vision. The problem is exceedingly more severe for children and pregnant women because mercury consumption can lead to abnormal brain development and learning disabilities. These scary facts about whale burgers make Big Macs seem like a bowl-full of veggies.

Despite the known health risks of consuming mercury, whale-consuming nations like Japan and the Faroe Islands insist that WHO intervention isn't necessary and that dining on whales is a time-honored tradition. They offer guidelines of their own on how often folks should consume whale meat. Kate Sanderson, director of the department of oceans and environment of the Faroe Islands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the BBC that the country advises its citizens to only eat one or two whale meat meals each month. "Pilot whales represent not only the traditional part of the diet that people value very much, but also something that's free," Sanderson told the BBC. "It doesn't have to be paid for as an import."

Sure, the meat doesn't have to be paid for, but what about the health costs? Japan, whose citizens also consume whale regularly, is proof that government-declared recommendations don't do enough to protect consumers from mercury poisoning. According to Discover's Discoblog, in 2007, Japanese officials found that the mercury in whale meat served in one town's school lunches exceeded safe levels. This spring, another Japanese town's citizens showed higher-than-normal levels of mercury, presumably caused by eating whale and dolphin meat. The meat may taste good (having never tried it, I can't speak from experience). But can a dish really be considered delicious if one can develop numbness, fatigue, or worse from eating it?

I'm all for maintaining cultural traditions. In an increasingly modernizing world, holding on to one's roots is a crucial undertaking. However, if a custom decimates the world's oceans and creates a nation of children with brain development problems and learning disabilities, is it really worth preserving?

Photo credit: paranoidnotandroid via Flickr