Japan and other “island nations” doo eat dolphin meat.
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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Data point: This was addressed in the documentary The Cove, which is about dolphin hunting. Fishing companies insisted that dolphin meat was an important part of the Japanese diet, but when they interviewed folks on the street they looked confused and laughed at the idea of eating a beautiful dolphin.
IIRC since we poisoned our seas the meat is full of mercury
Why does that only apply to Dolphin. Is there something in Mammals that makes them accumulate Mercury more than Fish?
It doesn't. The process is called bioaccumulation and is a function of how long the species live and as a predator, how much of food lower on the food chain they eat.
Sardines are safer than Mackarel because they don't live as long and predate less. Mackarel are better than Tuna because tuna is a longer lived predator that eats more, thus accumulates more mercury. Dolphins are top of the food chain, thus have higher mecury levels.
Ahh!! Thank you!
The dolphins are getting it from the fish. It just tends to accumulate more in the longer living bigger animals. You are actually advised to watch your fish intake due to mercury levels.
Anything at the top of a foodchain is mercury poisoned.
Tuna also has a higher mercury content
I didn’t know so search for it
Understanding Mercury Bioaccumulation in Dolphins
Mercury, a heavy metal, enters marine ecosystems through various sources, including industrial discharge, atmospheric deposition, and natural geological processes. Because dolphins are apex predators, they accumulate mercury through the food chain. Smaller fish ingest mercury, and when dolphins consume those fish, the mercury becomes concentrated in their tissues. This process, known as bioaccumulation, results in higher concentrations of mercury in top predators like dolphins compared to organisms lower in the food web.
https://iere.org/how-much-mercury-was-found-in-the-dolphin-meat-they-tested/
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I'd rather not eat anything sapient. Crabs, chicken, and beef? Fine, but I'm not eating anything smarter than a 5-year-old human. No octopi or corvids for me.
So you're okay with eating toddlers, gotcha 👍
Sure, if they never grew up. But they do, so I won't.
They don't if you eat them first ...
Hopefully you don't eat pigs then. They are one of the most intelligent animals.
I eat beef... But when you meet cows they are basically gigantic dogs...
Sometimes I go though phases where I don't want any meat... But eventually my brain pushes those feelings back..
That said fuck factory farming, I really wish we had a better system
How do you judge that? There are very many species of animals and there is variation within each species.
Personally I just have a list of animals that I have enough respect for to never consider eating them. If I'm convinced enough, I'll add new animals to the list.
- dog/wolf 🐺
- hourse 🐴
- whale/dolphin 🐋
- hominidae 🦍 It's not very hard because I wasn't planning on eating any of these guys in the first place, but I can see myself giving up beef as my respect for cows grows.
Did you mean sentient? :)
No, I meant sapient. Sentient just means "reacts to outside stimuli." Plants are sentient. Its a really useless word.
Oh wow. Didnt know about that!
In most respects, I'd rank a five-year-old human mentally above a raven or octopus.
Not defining key terms like "we" defeats the porpoise of the question.
That you, Jacques du Gatineaou?
"Dolphins are intelligent!"
"Not this one. He blew all his money on instant lottery tickets."
Should we??
Religious reason: It's not biblical under the Levitical food laws. In those laws, things like pig, dolphin, catfish, and vultures (to name a few examples) are not considered food to us (unclean foods due to what they eat).
If everyone followed that "law," nobody would eat pigs or catfish.
But most people do eat pig & catfish.
So your explanation doesn't quite hold water.
If you take their answer as "historical precedent that's never been overturned" then it makes sense, And the question becomes "why did it get overturned for pigs and catfish?"
People turned away from the faith because they wanted to eat unclean meats.
There's a test I'd like to run.
Over a large and varied population, are unclean meats tastier or not?
I don’t believe it’s specifically forbidden, just that dolphins don’t have fins or scales. That includes a lot of things in the sea
If you look at the Levitical food laws, there are specific critera for what animal is considered food to eat. For seafood, it's fish with fins and scales. If one doesn't have the other, it's unclean.
Speak for yourself. Now someone pass me the speech centre of the brain!
I don't want to eat an intelligent creature!
It's okay. These dolphins spent all their money gambling.
Oh. Alright then.
Historical. Dolphins have the reputation of being cute and intelligent.
Maybe pigs are intelligent but we already know what bacon tastes like.
I’ve also seen too many whaling videos showing all that blubber. Unless we’re resorting to whale oil again, that isn’t attractive
Edit: I found this https://iere.org/why-shouldnt-we-eat-dolphins/
In the US, looks lile it's illegal to trade in dolphin meat due to the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
It's apparently legal in Japan.
They got great marketing. They act all cute and nice so we don't think of eating them eventhough they are evil.
Too fast, I only get halfway through a bite before they swim away.
From “so long and thanks for all the fish” to “enjoy being space red-lined, fuckos”
We do, its just you you don't.
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