Japan is recommending that whales that stray onto beaches should find themselves on the menu.

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According to a report compiled by the Fisheries Ministry, saving beached or stranded whales is too costly and too dangerous. Instead, says the panel that compiled the report, it would be better to kill the whales and turn the carcass into meat and industrial chemicals.


Currently the law is vague on the killing and consumption of beached whales in Japan. Last year, 273 whales were washed ashore including 12 whales beached in Iberaki near Tokyo where local residents call beached whales ‘gifts from the sea’. Some of the whales were killed and carted off to dinner.

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