In a massive sting operation, South Korean police raided warehouses in the southern port of Ulsan last week, and confiscated more than 50 tonnes of minke whale meat.  At least 70 people have been detained, among them fishermen, distributors and restaurant operators.

Whale meat can be sold legally in South Korea only if the whales were killed accidentally as bycatch in fishing nets.  Each whale caught in a net is supposed to be registered with the Government, in order to determine whether the whale was killed accidentally or deliberately.  Fishermen who break the law face stiff penalties.

With minke whales fetching 35 million won (about 20,000 GBP or US$37,300) each, conservationists feared that the high profits have been an incentive to deliberately catch more whales in nets. Between 1999 and 2003, fishermen in South Korea reported a total of 458 minke whales caught and killed in fishing nets.  However, DNA analysis carried out by a research team at Oregon State University on whale meat sold in markets revealed that actual numbers could have been higher than 800 whales. 

Minke whales in the North Pacific are being reviewed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as they are heavily targeted both by Japan’s ‘scientific’ hunts and high, and increasing, levels of bycatch by Japan and Korea.  A tiny population, known as ‘J stock’, is genetically distinct from the bigger minke whale population in the North Pacific, and scientists are concerned that the  ‘J stock’ minke whales could become extinct in a matter of years if nothing is done to protect these whales.

In 2005, Korea stunned the world by announcing plans to build a whale and dolphin meat processing facility in the Jangsangpo district of Ulsan; the plans were scrapped after vocal protests by local and international conservation organizations during the IWC meeting hosted by South Korea in June of 2005.

Source: AFP and WDCS