Eating Whale

Whether to eat whale raises some interesting questions, because they are immense, intelligent, and beautiful creatures that have decreasing populations.

I was recently in Iceland and Greenland. In Iceland, a couple of restaurants feature whale. I have read that whale hunting is controversial in Iceland; some say the Minke whales which are hunted are healthy, others want to ban the practice. My sense was that the average Icelander no longer has any interest in whale and it is the tourist trade that drives the continued hunt. For this reason I was not interested, and was possibly opposed to, eating whale. I didn't want to aid and abet the hunting of this creature.

In Greenland, my guiding service had some Muktuk that they had purchased at the local market. Muktuk is raw whale fat with the skin. The natives there still hunt whale and prize Muktuk in particular. While I still had some reservations, I felt that my consumption in no way stimulated further hunting; that process would take place with or without me. So I chewed away. For those interested, it tasted like eating a mild, barely fishy form of fat. You can chew if for a while like gum. (I also tasted raw seal fat, which is quite a bit oilier and fisher, tasting like tuna in a cheap oil.)

It is interesting which creatures we're willing to eat, and which we won't, because of the nature of the creature, and the intersection of that very subjective feeling with the more objective issue of insuring the survival of certain species of living creatures. I don't pretend to have the answers and am not critical of those who eat whale, but found the issues raised more complex than I would have thought.

Well, Jonah, sometimes you eat the whale and other times, the whale eats you.

In all seriousness, I appreciate the insights and feel like your approach makes perfect sense. I like to think I would have handled it in the same manner.

=R=

I had whale in Japan. Thought it tasted like bacon.

Melville has a little to add to this discussion. Here is a podcast reading the Moby Dick chapter on "The Whale as a Dish":
http://www.mobydickbigread.com/chapter- ... as-a-dish/

Let's hope your whale wasn't beached... (!!)

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5202a2.htm

or poorly fermented
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/bodyh ... iY7zrxFKHs