http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/two-men-could-face-fines-after-butchering-whale-893276.html
(pics and video at the site)
Two men could face fines after butchering whale on Delray Beach this morning 'I apologize to the state of Florida... I didn't know it was illegal.'
By Eliot Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
When a passerby told Chris Hogan, fishing at dawn today for blue crab, that a 7-foot whale had come ashore with the high tide and died, he calmly walked over, pulled his fishing knife and cut away two feet of it, tail and all.
Why?
"To eat it!" he exclaimed, puffing on a butt in a pastel shirt and pith helmet.
Hogan, 60, a 34-year Delray Beach resident, said a lifeguard then informed him it was illegal.
On the beach, just south of Atlantic Avenue, swimmers, police and reporters milled at yellow crime scene tape framing a 40-by-40 foot square. The decomposing carcass was at center and the tail assembly off to the side, Hogan's orange fishing glove still lying on it. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Lt. Atwell Pride and two Delray Beach officers walked him to a cruiser to go to police headquarters.
"I apologize to the state of Florida," Hogan told Pride as he collected his tackle box and bait bucket. "I pay my taxes and I didn't know it was illegal. I do now."
Pride said federal agencies might charge Hogan and a second man who helped him cut up the whale. Pride and federal officials would not identify the second man, citing an ongoing investigation. Hogan said later today he'd never met the man.
"He just pulled the flukes back while I cut the thing," Hogan said. "He was walking down the beach. Some man from New York." Hogan said state and federal officials grilled him at length. "I asked them if I was going to jail," he said. "They laughed." And, he said, "I've been unemployed for over two years. The last thing I need is a big fine."
A first-time collecting of parts carries a civil fine of $250 to $800. If criminal charges were filed, the penalty would range up to $100,000 and a year in jail. "They were very nice to me," Hogan said of the agents. "They said, 'Were you planning to sell it?' I said, 'No, I was planning to eat it. Because I'd never eaten whale before."
He said he would have broiled or fried the thin ring of meat just beneath the whale's skin. He also planned to use the flukes for a soup. Hogan said he wasn't worried about health issues because the body still was warm and there was only one fly on it. "The tide was still going out. So it (the whale) hadn't been there that long. The sand was still wet," he said. Hogan, whose former careers were in tropical plants and antiques, said he meant no harm.
If it had been alive I'd have been the first one to find somebody with a cell phone," he said.
"I really screwed up," Hogan sighed. "I'm really quite embarrassed about the whole damn thing, to be honest with you." The animal probably was a pygmy sperm or a dwarf sperm, neither of them threatened or endangered, spokeswoman Kim Amendola said from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service in St. Petersburg.
But she said the two men still could be charged with violating the Marine Mammals Act, which protects all sea mammals, regardless of status, and forbids killing or even possessing parts of them.
A necropsy is planned to try to learn why the animal beached itself, NOAA fisheries marina mammal biologist Erin Fougeres, said today. But she said that must wait for the criminal investigation.
"It's going to go into a freezer," she said. Staff writer Sonja Isger and staff photographer Lannis Waters
contributed to this report.
Showing posts with label illegal whale trade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illegal whale trade. Show all posts
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Two men could face fines after butchering whale
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/two-men-could-face-fines-after-butchering-whale-893276.html
(pics and video at the site)
Two men could face fines after butchering whale on Delray Beach this morning 'I apologize to the state of Florida... I didn't know it was illegal.'
By Eliot Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
When a passerby told Chris Hogan, fishing at dawn today for blue crab, that a 7-foot whale had come ashore with the high tide and died, he calmly walked over, pulled his fishing knife and cut away two feet of it, tail and all.
Why?
"To eat it!" he exclaimed, puffing on a butt in a pastel shirt and pith helmet.
Hogan, 60, a 34-year Delray Beach resident, said a lifeguard then informed him it was illegal.
On the beach, just south of Atlantic Avenue, swimmers, police and reporters milled at yellow crime scene tape framing a 40-by-40 foot square. The decomposing carcass was at center and the tail assembly off to the side, Hogan's orange fishing glove still lying on it. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Lt. Atwell Pride and two Delray Beach officers walked him to a cruiser to go to police headquarters.
"I apologize to the state of Florida," Hogan told Pride as he collected his tackle box and bait bucket. "I pay my taxes and I didn't know it was illegal. I do now."
Pride said federal agencies might charge Hogan and a second man who helped him cut up the whale. Pride and federal officials would not identify the second man, citing an ongoing investigation. Hogan said later today he'd never met the man.
"He just pulled the flukes back while I cut the thing," Hogan said. "He was walking down the beach. Some man from New York." Hogan said state and federal officials grilled him at length. "I asked them if I was going to jail," he said. "They laughed." And, he said, "I've been unemployed for over two years. The last thing I need is a big fine."
A first-time collecting of parts carries a civil fine of $250 to $800. If criminal charges were filed, the penalty would range up to $100,000 and a year in jail. "They were very nice to me," Hogan said of the agents. "They said, 'Were you planning to sell it?' I said, 'No, I was planning to eat it. Because I'd never eaten whale before."
He said he would have broiled or fried the thin ring of meat just beneath the whale's skin. He also planned to use the flukes for a soup. Hogan said he wasn't worried about health issues because the body still was warm and there was only one fly on it. "The tide was still going out. So it (the whale) hadn't been there that long. The sand was still wet," he said. Hogan, whose former careers were in tropical plants and antiques, said he meant no harm.
If it had been alive I'd have been the first one to find somebody with a cell phone," he said.
"I really screwed up," Hogan sighed. "I'm really quite embarrassed about the whole damn thing, to be honest with you." The animal probably was a pygmy sperm or a dwarf sperm, neither of them threatened or endangered, spokeswoman Kim Amendola said from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service in St. Petersburg.
But she said the two men still could be charged with violating the Marine Mammals Act, which protects all sea mammals, regardless of status, and forbids killing or even possessing parts of them.
A necropsy is planned to try to learn why the animal beached itself, NOAA fisheries marina mammal biologist Erin Fougeres, said today. But she said that must wait for the criminal investigation.
"It's going to go into a freezer," she said. Staff writer Sonja Isger and staff photographer Lannis Waters
contributed to this report.
(pics and video at the site)
Two men could face fines after butchering whale on Delray Beach this morning 'I apologize to the state of Florida... I didn't know it was illegal.'
By Eliot Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
When a passerby told Chris Hogan, fishing at dawn today for blue crab, that a 7-foot whale had come ashore with the high tide and died, he calmly walked over, pulled his fishing knife and cut away two feet of it, tail and all.
Why?
"To eat it!" he exclaimed, puffing on a butt in a pastel shirt and pith helmet.
Hogan, 60, a 34-year Delray Beach resident, said a lifeguard then informed him it was illegal.
On the beach, just south of Atlantic Avenue, swimmers, police and reporters milled at yellow crime scene tape framing a 40-by-40 foot square. The decomposing carcass was at center and the tail assembly off to the side, Hogan's orange fishing glove still lying on it. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Lt. Atwell Pride and two Delray Beach officers walked him to a cruiser to go to police headquarters.
"I apologize to the state of Florida," Hogan told Pride as he collected his tackle box and bait bucket. "I pay my taxes and I didn't know it was illegal. I do now."
Pride said federal agencies might charge Hogan and a second man who helped him cut up the whale. Pride and federal officials would not identify the second man, citing an ongoing investigation. Hogan said later today he'd never met the man.
"He just pulled the flukes back while I cut the thing," Hogan said. "He was walking down the beach. Some man from New York." Hogan said state and federal officials grilled him at length. "I asked them if I was going to jail," he said. "They laughed." And, he said, "I've been unemployed for over two years. The last thing I need is a big fine."
A first-time collecting of parts carries a civil fine of $250 to $800. If criminal charges were filed, the penalty would range up to $100,000 and a year in jail. "They were very nice to me," Hogan said of the agents. "They said, 'Were you planning to sell it?' I said, 'No, I was planning to eat it. Because I'd never eaten whale before."
He said he would have broiled or fried the thin ring of meat just beneath the whale's skin. He also planned to use the flukes for a soup. Hogan said he wasn't worried about health issues because the body still was warm and there was only one fly on it. "The tide was still going out. So it (the whale) hadn't been there that long. The sand was still wet," he said. Hogan, whose former careers were in tropical plants and antiques, said he meant no harm.
If it had been alive I'd have been the first one to find somebody with a cell phone," he said.
"I really screwed up," Hogan sighed. "I'm really quite embarrassed about the whole damn thing, to be honest with you." The animal probably was a pygmy sperm or a dwarf sperm, neither of them threatened or endangered, spokeswoman Kim Amendola said from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service in St. Petersburg.
But she said the two men still could be charged with violating the Marine Mammals Act, which protects all sea mammals, regardless of status, and forbids killing or even possessing parts of them.
A necropsy is planned to try to learn why the animal beached itself, NOAA fisheries marina mammal biologist Erin Fougeres, said today. But she said that must wait for the criminal investigation.
"It's going to go into a freezer," she said. Staff writer Sonja Isger and staff photographer Lannis Waters
contributed to this report.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Japanese whale meat 'being sold in US and Korea'
Scientists say they have found clear proof that meat from whales captured under Japan's whaling programme is being sold in US and Korean eateries.
The researchers say they used genetic fingerprinting to identify meat taken from a Los Angeles restaurant as coming from a sei whale sold in Japan.
They say the discovery proves that an illegal trade in protected species still exists.
Whale meat was also allegedly found at an unnamed Seoul sushi restaurant.
Commercial whaling has been frozen by an international moratorium since 1986.
But a controversial exemption allows Japan to kill several hundred whales each year for what is termed scientific research.
The meat from these whales is then sold to the public in shops and restaurants in that country.
Criminal proceedings
A team of scientists, film-makers and environmental advocates say they collected samples of whale meat being sold in sushi restaurants in both the US and South Korea late last year.
A genetic analysis of meat found in Los Angeles showed that it was identical to meat from a sei whale being sold in Japan in 2007. This species is said by environmentalists to be in danger of extinction.
Criminal proceedings have started against the Los Angeles restaurant caught selling the whale meat.
It has now closed but its chef and owners face heavy penalties.
Writing in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, the researchers involved say that trading in this meat is banned between countries that have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The researchers also visited an unnamed restaurant in the South Korean capital Seoul where they say they purchased 13 whale products on two occasions in June and September 2009.
Four came from an Antarctic minke whale, four from a sei whale, three from a North Pacific minke, one from a fin whale and one was from a Risso's dolphin, the researchers say.
The DNA profile of the fin whale meat genetically matched meat that had been bought in Japanese markets in 2007, they report.
They argue that Japan should be required to make public a register of the DNA of all the whales it catches so that illegally traded meat can be tracked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8619051.stm
The researchers say they used genetic fingerprinting to identify meat taken from a Los Angeles restaurant as coming from a sei whale sold in Japan.
They say the discovery proves that an illegal trade in protected species still exists.
Whale meat was also allegedly found at an unnamed Seoul sushi restaurant.
Commercial whaling has been frozen by an international moratorium since 1986.
But a controversial exemption allows Japan to kill several hundred whales each year for what is termed scientific research.
The meat from these whales is then sold to the public in shops and restaurants in that country.
Criminal proceedings
A team of scientists, film-makers and environmental advocates say they collected samples of whale meat being sold in sushi restaurants in both the US and South Korea late last year.
A genetic analysis of meat found in Los Angeles showed that it was identical to meat from a sei whale being sold in Japan in 2007. This species is said by environmentalists to be in danger of extinction.
Criminal proceedings have started against the Los Angeles restaurant caught selling the whale meat.
It has now closed but its chef and owners face heavy penalties.
Writing in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, the researchers involved say that trading in this meat is banned between countries that have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The researchers also visited an unnamed restaurant in the South Korean capital Seoul where they say they purchased 13 whale products on two occasions in June and September 2009.
Four came from an Antarctic minke whale, four from a sei whale, three from a North Pacific minke, one from a fin whale and one was from a Risso's dolphin, the researchers say.
The DNA profile of the fin whale meat genetically matched meat that had been bought in Japanese markets in 2007, they report.
They argue that Japan should be required to make public a register of the DNA of all the whales it catches so that illegally traded meat can be tracked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8619051.stm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)